Rising Tide
by AblatedCrayon
Summary: Even after the thwarted geth attack against the Citadel, things are a far reach from stabilizing. Be wary, and watch, lest the rising tide catch you unaware.
1. Chapter 1

_Rising Tide_

By Ablated Crayon

Mass Effect and related names belong to Bioware Inc.  
This original work of fiction was written for nonprofit purposes.  
Original characters and plotline elements belong to the author.

© Ablated Crayon 2008

**Chapter 1**

The _SSV Bunker Hill _quickly approached Elysium, heading for a berth assigned by flight control. Standing in the middle of the CIC, Captain Ashley Reed watched quietly on her monitors, noting specifically the performance of her new pilot in controlling the frigate. With nothing but a slight warble at one point, Flight Lieutenant Larissa Knight managed a very solid berthing. Soon as the locks engaged, giving the _Bunker Hill_ a slight shake, the Captain finally stopped staring at the CIC monitors.

"I want Alyssa Morgan and her squad to join me." Ashley informed her XO.

Corman Wells nodded in reply. "I'll tell her." He opened a radio channel, keying specifically for the marine in question. The system automatically chose the proper frequency to squawk when he selected her name and seconds later, she acknowledged.

"Morgan here."

"Lieutenant, get your squad geared up. Captain Reed wants your escort while on Elysium."

"Not to worry, Sir. We'll be up shortly."

"Glad to hear it. Wells out."

Reed seemed impatient, tapping a foot on the floor unconsciously. Wells noticed immediately, and frowning slightly, he asked quietly, "Worried, Captain?"

"Little nervous, yeah." She stated, equally subdued. "Last time I was here, we were picking up after the Skyllian Blitz."

"Of course, Ma'am. At least this time, things should be a lot more—_settled_."

"I just hope it's all wrapped up quickly so I can get out of here. Bad memories." She gave a slight shudder before regaining her composure. Just then, a door at the aft of the CIC opened up, revealing three marines entering the room. It was Alyssa Morgan and her squad mates, Victor Stall and Elizabeth Yates.

"Reporting for duty, Captain!" Alyssa declared in the same strong, authoritative voice the Captain heard so many officers use before her.

Ashley nodded, saying, "At ease, Lieutenant. Well, let's get a move-on, we don't have all day." She turned, leading the way to the docking port. Together the team of four left the CIC and eventually the _Bunker Hill_ behind, emerging on the embarkation level of the giant skyscraper that housed many frigate-sized berths.

Together they reported to the planetary security and soon were released to enter Elysium proper. As they walked, the marines remained respectfully quiet, until Yates noticed a ship flying past overhead, heading for the same building from which they'd only just emerged.

"Lieutenant, it's the _Normandy_!" Everyone looked up, craning to see the retreating frigate before it rounded a corner of the building. Alyssa gave a slow whistle. "If that's the _Normandy_ then that means Shepard's here! Wonder what brings a Spectre to Elysium."

"Nothing good," Captain Ashley Reed announced, somewhat displeased at this revelation.

"Maybe he's just visiting." Victor spoke up. "I mean, defending Elysium during the Blitz, that's got to make this place special in some way to you."

"Maybe," Alyssa replied, obviously not wanting to give up on the possibility Shepard was here for a mission. "Ma'am, if I may, where are we going?"

"We've got a mission to Therum and I think it's high time we had a biotic on the team."

"If I may, why here?"

"Is this the bloody inquisition, Lieutenant?" Reed snapped.

"No, Ma'am, sorry, Ma'am." Came her unhappy reply. Ashley sighed to herself. She didn't want to be unnecessarily cruel about it all, but Elysium always rubbed her the wrong way, ever since the nightmares she'd seen here, aftereffects of a bloody struggle against thieves, slavers, and other underworld interests trying to conquer the planet. It was saved by Shepard's lone holding effort, but at great cost regardless. The memories refused to fade in Reed's mind, however much she tried to forget it.

She often wondered how Shepard dealt with it. After all, he was here even before she was.

- - - - -

Damien Cross sat on his sofa, staring at a coffee cup he'd left on the countertop. His latest trick looked like a reverse biotic throw, drawing a single object towards him instead of batting it away. In practice, it was a good deal more complicated than that. It required two simultaneous mass effect fields, the first used to lower the mass of his cup, which sat almost ten feet away. Then, he created a small singularity in his palm, attracting the cup to slide it quickly horizontally towards his open palm. The whole trick took less than a second so the cup did not fall even five centimeters before it reached his hand. However, Damien underestimated the speed the cup would reach from accelerating towards his hand. As it slammed into his palm, he felt the painful impact throughout his hand and wrist. "Hell!" He yelled out in pain, quickly dropping the mug next to him on the sofa and proceeding to rub his wrist and hand to alleviate the pain. It took a few minutes for his nerves to calm back down, but otherwise he was uninjured. He chuckled softly to himself. "Next time," He admonished, "Not so far away from the cup."

Damien picked up the mug gingerly with his sore hand, standing up and replacing it on the countertop. Despite how alienated biotics could make him feel occasionally, Damien still clung to it desperately. It made him unique and was about the only reason anyone, especially the Systems Alliance, would pay him any attention or try to recruit him into military service. He rejected their offer, preferring to help people than be trained as a weapon to be used against others.

Still, biotics set him apart in many ways. Anytime he accidentally flared up, the purple cloud of light coalescing around his body, people flinched very noticeably. Not many people knew him well, so of course many would assume he was an L2 implanted biotic, liable to be dangerous and go insane. In actually, Damien had no implants whatsoever. As far as he knew, he was the only human capable of making powerful mass effect fields without the assistance of implants.

There was a perfectly logical reason for this. Damien was not entirely human. His foster parents explained this to him several times. At first Damien didn't believe them, but since his biotics began asserting themselves without the aid of implants, even he had to admit there was something different about him. His real parents served jail time together not long after Damien's biotics became obvious. The Systems Alliance allowed human enhancement of natural capabilities, but adding additional abilities beyond what a human could do was grossly illegal. His parents didn't let the law stop them from combining a bit of asari DNA with his own while he was still in the womb.

He'd been told more than once that his parents were insane, mentally uninhibited scientists. To do something so drastic to their own child, he had to agree, even if he barely remembered their faces. The next question he had for his foster parents was "What does that make me?"

He never received a good answer on that one. Damien was not asari. There are no masculine-looking, pink-skinned asari. But he wasn't human either, because no human controlled biotics without implants and training. Damien was exactly like the asari in this respect, but he didn't have an asari's ready access to biotic training. Thus, most of his learning came from self-teaching books. He also discovered during his training that he didn't need to constantly use theatrical swings of his arms as mnemonic devices either—biotics was so close to hand he merely had to decide to do it in his head. On the other hand, the hand-waving did make things respond a bit faster, it seemed.

Sometimes he liked to blame his birth parents for making him into a freak of nature. Other times he just enjoyed the feeling of being a force of nature without requiring the aid of a weapon. His abilities were often a double-edged sword, both helping boost his confidence in himself, and alienating him from 'normal' humans.

Which is why in most situations, Damien chose to downplay his biotic abilities to the point of disregarding them, and only using them in the privacy of his home, windows opaqued, door locked. Having experimented enough for one evening, he chose to pick up a tennis ball and sit himself three-quarters the length of the room away from a wall. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, he dropped the ball, letting it come to rest in front of him. With careful precision, he created a mass effect field and threw force against the ball, causing it to ricochet off the floor, flying a parabolic curve until it hit the far wall, bouncing off that with enough energy the come all the way back to his hand without touching the floor again. "Score." He announced to the empty room. He smiled, imaging a thousand fans cheering him on for his talent. It might be a pipe dream, but it was still too appealing an image to simply let go.

The doorbell rang, startling him out of his momentary rapture. He quickly got up on his feet, letting the tennis ball drop to the floor and roll over to rest against a wall. _I'm not expecting visitors,_ he considered, _so who's coming to my door?_

Damien walked to his front door. As he approached, he used the tiniest of biotic shoves to press a button located near the door, engaging the video overlay. Instantly, a holographic vid screen powered up, placing a live camera feed of his visitor a few inches in front of the doorway. The figure was masked, heavily robed, but of slight build.

He frowned. Answering this might open him up to a robbery if this person had a weapon concealed. He decided to talk instead. "What do you want?"

A woman's voice, modulated, answered, "Um. If you could answer the door please—"

"Not interested. Go sell your goods elsewhere."

"No! It's just... I need help! Please?"

"Are you in eminent danger?"

"Kind of..."

"Call planetary security then. I can't help you."

There was a scuffle over the speakers and suddenly two large men came into view, flanking the robed figure. One smacked the girl on the back of her head, and she fell forward, unconscious. "Look buddy, let us in or we nix her on your doorstep. You want a homicide here?"

Damien gulped. His biotics flared wildly, responding to his fight or flight response. Damien pressed the button, allowing the door to open, preparing a hard shove at chest level. Hopefully, it would pass right above the poor girl on the floor and catch both assailants simultaneously. However, as the door opened, Damien saw one using his omni-tool. Seconds later, A thousand prickly needles stabbed him all over his nervous system and he collapsed in pain. The men quickly pushed past, pulling him and the woman inside, sealing the door behind them.

"Looks like this tool is working just like promised." The larger man said. He was heavy-set, muscular mostly in his arms from what Damien could tell, and no longer bothered concealing a pistol he had on his person.

The other was also human, medium build. Both were fair-skinned and didn't seem to get a lot of sun. If Damien had to guess, he'd say they were mercenaries that worked on a ship, probably not spending much time on a planet's surface working on their tans.

The larger man introduced himself, "Call me Johannes and my friend's Charlie. Not our real names, mind you." He waved the gun menacingly in Damien's direction then. "Now, we represent a party interested in getting some information from you. Where's Elijah Semasko?"

Damien knew that name. Elijah Semasko was a street name for a local Elysium smuggler. Semasko had recently had a change of heart when his family was almost attacked by mercenaries, probably hired by his competition. Elijah had agreed to testify in seven different hearings, and would be a key witness in all of them. That left seven well-connected parties wanting him dead.

Which is where Damien had stepped in, as he worked in witness protection. He'd helped establish Semasko and his family with new ids, a new home, and made the old smuggler disappear from the grid. Generally speaking, no information tying an agent to a case is kept, to avoid this exact situation. Apparently, for at least one of the underworld crime syndicates, this precaution was not enough. Still, he could try to play it dumb. They were mercs, after all, and they had no way to know how Damien was linked to Semasko. On the other hand, they wouldn't be paid if they didn't get results, and Damien didn't relish the idea of being tortured and beaten for information.

"Who?"

A very predictable punch came next, catching Damien's left cheek and sending him twirling until the floor came up to greet him. He laid still then, head reverberating, sluggish and trying to clear his mind, concentrate. "Don't play coy, cop."

One very unhelpful thing occurred to Damien then. _I should have called for backup _before_ trying that stunt opening the door._ _They know they can't leave until they've erased the doorway camera's memory._

It was too late for this, however, and Damien knew he was responsible for how very wrong things were going now. He needed a new solution, and fast, and hopefully his ego wouldn't blind him to the simple answers as it had already done once now.

"Alright, alright." Damien called out, feeling the pistol being jammed into the back of his neck as he lay prone on the floor. The pressure relented and the mercenary backed up enough for Damien to turn around, and slide himself back into a sitting position. "Witness protection keeps all information strictly on a need-to-know basis. I don't know this Semasko, nor who relocated him. You got to find that agent if you want to learn anything at all. I swear, I don't know anything."

"Funny." Charlie's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Because I was told you _were_ the agent who relocated him. But if you're not, then I guess you're of no use to us, right Johannes? We can just cap 'um and go."

"Right." The menace came through quite clearly.

Damien grit his teeth. The omni-tool's biotic dampening field drains a lot of power quickly, and works over a short radius. If he could prolong this, string them along, his biotics would take care of the pistol and he could call for reinforcements. But they had to know this just as well as he did, so it was very likely they wouldn't wait that long. Already, 'Charlie' was using his omni-tool to delete Damien's front door camera footage for the last several hours, probably.

Things were going to move fast. The situation would degrade quickly when it came time for that. His mind raced for a solution. He still had his omni-tool on his left hand. He could open it up, send a disruption wave to force all tech to reset. It could buy him a tenth of a second at best. He didn't know if he could work that quickly, but decided now was the time to find out.

He fixed a very unhappy glare at Johannes and his pistol. With a resigned sigh, he consented. "I've got information in my omni-tool. I'll unlock it for you."

"You store information in your tool? Are you insane?" Charlie was obviously not buying it. Damien didn't stop working on his omni-tool, his window was closing and he needed this done before they realized they were being played.

"Yup." He answered as his omni-tool gave a confirming beep. A moment later, the disruption wave caused his own omni-tool to blink out along with Charlie's. With everything he could muster concentrated on one perfect shove, Damien's biotics lit up and sent a wave of destruction at Johannes. The man flew back so quickly it didn't even register in Damien's eyes until he was already embedded in the drywall of his far wall. Charlie, distracted and agape, staring at his unmoving partner, had little chance to fix his hesitation before another biotic attack came his way. He was lifted carefully into the air, bouncing against the ceiling softly. He tried to move to use his omni-tool, but the biotics kept him from exerting any control of his appendages.

Damien got to his feet, a purple haze lazily swathing him in a menacing glow. He walked over to the pistol, dropped near Johannes' body, still nestled in the wall like sitting slumped in a chair. He picked it up and returned to Charlie, walking directly underneath the incapacitated mercenary. He pointed up at Charlie, preparing to fire. Frightened to death, Charlie cried out for mercy.

Damien smiled. "Not killing you yet. You might be the only one alive who can tell me who hired you. Unless you don't want to talk?"

"I'll talk! I'll talk!" Charlie cried, still pinned.

A single shot sent a loud rapport throughout the apartment. Charlie felt incredible heat and pain in his left arm. He turned his head wearily to look at it, seeing the blood congeal and softly separate, floating just as he was. A clean shot through the forearm—and right through his expensive new omni-tool. The biotic field wore off then, causing Charlie to scream as the floor rushed up to meet him. He held his arms out to mitigate the blow, but his left arm predictably gave out and his head smacked the ground hard. He swore he heard ringing and blacked out momentarily. The pain was everywhere now, his head, his arms, his knees.

Damien carefully picked the mercenary up and placed him up against a wall. The merc's head lolled before he began to shake it off and regain some mental clarity. Damien pressed the pistol into Charlie's left knee, just above the kneecap. "So talk. Who hired you?"

Charlie grimaced in pain, but forced himself to answer. "We were approached by a krogan. Obvious front-man or middle man of some sort. Called himself Cam—Kam—I don't know it was weird like so many damn alien names. He met us at the Elysium frigate docks. Go here, shake you up, get the information and relay it back to him. Peter's worked with him before, so I went along with it."

"Peter?" Damien pointed the pistol at the other mercenary. "That him?"

"Yeah," Charlie offered weakly.

"Sucks to be Peter." Damien offered in a level tone. "Now, I'd suggest that if you want to make it through this particular job alive, you go back to Kam or whatever he calls himself, and tell him to put you in contact with the employer. The employer gets this location: Elysium Financial District, 37-d, suite 1183. Get all that, Charlie?"

"37-d 1183. Got it." his voice was still weak.

"Good. Let me tell you how this works, Charlie. We have you. You aren't getting out of here free. You're going to snitch for us because you have no other options. The minute you tip them off, and ruin this bust, is the minute you visit prison for a very, very long time. I'll be placing a GPS tracker in you, so keep your nose clean and do what we tell you. Once you meet Kam, also let him know you killed the agent. Kam leads us to the guilty party, and once we get him, you get a reduced sentence. Sound good to you? Because I'm pretty sure I can shoot you right now and make it look like self defense. People don't tend to think clearly when their houses are invaded." The merc looked Damien right in the eyes. Sensing his resolve, Charlie agreed with a weak nod. Damien continued. "Good. Now I've got a surveillance operation to set up. Try not to bleed out in the meantime. Get Kam or whatever-his-name-is to supply you with some medi-gel to fix that wound when you talk to him."

A few minutes later, Damien was on the phone with the highest levels of witness protection. He sank a transmitter into Charlie's back with a quick injection and informed him he was free to go while on hold with the phone. The mercenary stumbled out the door, pained, but moving as quickly as he could push himself to go.

The quarian rejoined the living soon after Damien was off the phone. "Are you alright there? Had a nasty bump on the head."

She looked up at her benefactor with some suspicion before nodding curtly. "I'll be fine," came her modulated voice through the environmental suit's external speakers. "What happened?"

"I overpowered them, eventually." came his reply. He motioned to Peter. "Planetary Security is on the way. We both need to disappear while this bust goes down or the ones responsible will figure out they're being set up."

"Bust?"

"You don't need the details but apparently there's been a leak in my department and we need to find it, so I'm using this home invasion to set up a bust. It's all very on-the-fly right now and I don't rightly know how this will end up, so it's probably safer if we both disappear. Fortunately, I know how to do that pretty well."

"You do?"

"I work for the witness protection service." Damien explained. "I can get us out of here relatively quietly. However, seeing as there's maybe a dozen quarians on this planet, you pose a bit of a logistical problem in moving. Know any other quarians on Elysium?"

"Uh, no. Not personally." She offered meekly.

"I'm not rightly sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but for now I'm going with good because it'll make it easier for you to leave without sparking too much talk between the others." Damien's mind raced and the quarian could see him working hard through his focused gaze. "What's your name?" he asked, suddenly.

"My name is Ravi, Ravi-Korian Nar Scyian."

"Ravi, I'm Damien. What say we get started on our new lives, eh?"

- - - - -

Morgan snapped to attention as the captain exited the office she'd entered a good half hour earlier. With a sigh, she motioned for the three marines to fall in line and proceeded to the exit. "Things didn't go well, Captain?" She ventured.

"No, I would say not." She sighed. "You know the odds a biotic survives exposure and develops biotic abilities capable of being harnessed. There's a damn slight few of them in the Alliance Military right now, and they all know they're highly sought-after. The egos alone are almost not worth the effort."

Alyssa tried to downplay the loss, as if Ashley wouldn't see right through it anyway, "Well, I for one don't think biotics are half what they're hyped to be. Morale's probably better off without one and you know we can handle any assignment the Systems Alliance throws at us. I have faith, Captain."

Reed smiled weakly, obviously not buying it, but appreciating the effort. "Let's get back to the _Bunker Hill_, I for one want some rack time before we leave for Therum."

"Aye, aye, Captain." The marines intoned behind her. They walked in appreciable silence as a human and quarian approached, walking casually. The human was wearing a hood that obscured his face in shadows. The quarian seemed to just be along for the ride, following his lead. Suddenly, a patron ran out of a nearby market, slamming into the human, almost knocking them both over. The unmistakable flare of biotic energy enveloped the hooded man, and he angrily pushed the other away, and resumed walking, faster than before.

Morgan, her team, and the Captain stood completely still, shocked at the display from a _civilian_. There weren't many biotics who weren't in the Systems Alliance Military, nor holed up in some cultist hideaway.

"The hell?" asked Yates.

"That looked a hell of a lot like a biotic—" Lieutenant Morgan asserted. "Captain?"

Reed shrugged. "He's a civilian, but I guess it couldn't hurt to talk to him. Follow me."

The four set off back the way they'd come, following the biotic human. The hood kept him from noticing. They'd almost caught up to the duo when Morgan made an observation. "Captain, I think he's trained in evasion. He's going to the spaceport, same as us, but trying to lose us first."

"He couldn't have seen us," protested Victor Stall.

"It could just be procedure," Morgan shot back. "And if I'm right, he's about to duck into a building. We stand a good chance of losing him if we don't confront him soon."

"Then let's skip to the part where we talk to him," Ashley decided. "At least find out what he's running from." The four picked up their pace, and caught up to him outside a seafood restaurant. The human jerked the quarian inside, flaring up again, and turned to face the four, separated by only a few feet. They came to a stop, warily watching his purple haze as if it could tell them when he was about to strike out.

"Leave me alone." He stressed. "I'm having a hard enough time as it is without four Alliance suits chasing me down."

"Settle down, we just want to talk." Ashley told him. "You seem a little agitated."

Damien took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down his biotics. "Yes, I am. Perhaps it would help if we just parted ways."

"Look, I want five minutes. Give me your story, or listen to mine, I don't care."

Looking around briefly, Damien lowered the hood and gestured to the seafood restaurant. "Let's grab a table and be quick then. I can't hang out here exposed."

"Alright." Reed answered, gesturing her marines to follow the man inside the restaurant. "What's your name?"

"I'm between names at the moment." Damien replied. "Some people want my old one dead."

"Fine. I'm Captain Ashley Reed, this is Lieutenant Morgan, and her team." The group settled on a table, the quarian approaching cautiously after Damien nodded to her. As they all took their seats around the table, Reed continued. "I'm the commanding officer aboard the Alliance frigate _Bunker Hill_. We're on a short layover here before continuing on to Therum. I've been trying to get someone with your talents on board my ship for weeks now, but biotics are not the most common breed of human. Seems the best ones are taken or asari and I don't exactly trust aliens with Systems Alliance warship secrets, if you know what I mean. Nothing personal," This was directed towards the quarian, who seemed mute, "But even allies don't tell each other _everything._"

"Real sad story," Damien noted. "Don't care to join the Alliance. I've been asked more than once and my answer's always the same, leave me alone."

"What's your issue with the Alliance?" Morgan spoke out of turn, sensing his hostility directed mostly in her direction. "Or is it with Marines?"

Damien wet his top lip before speaking, thinking his next reply through before making it. "I have no issues with the Alliance, Lieutenant. But I don't believe in using my—" Damien considered using 'curse' momentarily before deciding against it, "_gift_ as a weapon of war. I think I'm more the person who protects life than takes it away."

"Why are you heading to the spaceport?" Reed asked, recalling Morgan's hypothesis.

Damien twitched at the mention of the spaceport and sighed. "This quarian and I have to disappear off-world for a while. I work in witness protection and there was a breech in security. We've got a serious mole high-up in my agency, way higher than myself, and he's working for someone on Elysium. I've set the ball rolling to find out who, but it'll only work if everyone believes I'm dead. I'm trying to get the two of us to Eden Prime. Things are still hectic there, it's easy to disappear with the constant traffic of relief efforts. From there, anywhere else in the entire Alliance works for me. If we get the mole, this whole situation blows over, then I can return and get my job back."

"We can get you off world," Reed offered. "What do you think?"

"I think that I've been made by those two people in the vehicle behind you. They've been watching the restaurant. Friends of yours?"

"No," Reed replied. "We're the only ones from _Bunker Hill_ ashore."

"Well shit." Damien replied. "Then I have one chance in a hundred they're not here for me. Which means they know I'm alive. Which means my entire plan of attack is S.O.L."

"Think they want to kill you?" Morgan asked.

"Hell yeah. I'm onto a conspiracy here. I knew I shouldn't have involved the police." Another curse, this one under his breath.

The marines were slightly surprised when Ravi spoke up, asking, "What do we do now?"

"We can get past them, but there's more at the spaceport. Guaranteed. They know about me that means they probably know my intentions."

"My offer still stands," Reed pointed out. "I'll get you two off world if you'll join my crew."

"I'm not becoming a Systems Alliance shoe-shining biotic lapdog." Damien replied hostilely.

"I can bring you aboard as a civilian," Reed compromised. "You're still a member of my crew, but you don't have to be a marine or take military orders beyond that of your immediate superior—myself."

"How about we make this decision when we're out of here." Damien intoned quietly.

Morgan smiled. She knew what was coming next. Ashley answered, "You agree to a trial run or I leave you to your own devices."

"Trial run?"

"We'll take it a mission at a time, hopefully you'll come to realize we're not bloodthirsty combatants. We only work to do what's best for the Systems Alliance. For humanity and freedom."

Damien considered this. "Alright." He conceded, defeated. "Doesn't look like I'll ever work on Elysium again."

"You might break the case later," Morgan offered some encouragement.

"Criminals this high up in government don't get there by being haphazard. They're covered. It takes a lot to get around that cover and expose them. And I just lost the only element I had working in my favor—surprise. It's over. It's up to someone else to carry this torch now. Someone who they won't know about, and be watching." Damien answered. "Alright. You get a trial run. First off, I need some help at the spaceport. I can't get through customs without some merc plugging me while I wait in line. Probably with a shank that doesn't set off metal detectors. I can get out of here, but once we arrive at the spaceport we're open season. Got any ideas?"

"Think you can disable those two in the car before they can react?"

"Yes." Damien replied. "But that doesn't get me through the spaceport in one piece."

"It might. You disable them, and then we get you armored in some of our combat gear—kinetic barriers plus good old fashioned armor should make you pretty hard to terminate quick and quiet. With your tail disabled, they can't radio ahead and warn them about your reinforcements. You reach the spaceport, head inside and head for the military section. I'll have extra men guarding the way from my ship, we'll retreat behind you. Once you're on the other side of customs, you're pretty much safe, but it'd be better to head straight for the _Bunker Hill_, docking port 1183."

"Excuse me?"

"What?" Reed asked, confused.

"Sorry, it's just. Strange. Never mind. 1-1-8-3 it is, I'll be there."

"Then let's blow this Popsicle stand." Reed replied smugly. "Stall, cover our friend while he takes care of the car, then give him your armor and get him set up. Yates, try to squeeze that quarian into as much of your armor as you can. Morgan, with me, we've got to pave the way. Give us two minutes then go." With her orders given, Captain Reed and Lieutenant Morgan immediately stood and left the table.

A waiter approached, asking, "Sorry for the delay. Would you like to order? And will your friends be returning?"

Damien shot him a dirty look. "We've decided we're not hungry." He answered.

"Are you sure?"

For dramatic effect, he allowed the biotic energy to shine through. "Positive." The malice didn't escape the waiter's purview, and he quickly retreated. Damien gestured to the only other man at the table. "Let's do this before they get antsy." The rest of the group stood, the women heading to the bathroom. Damien lead a purposeful stride outside and stared right at the two in the car. From across the street, the two seemed to be panicking, attempting to get off a warning perhaps. Before they could so much as click a short-wave radio, Damien's biotics shot out, crossing the street and enveloping them and the car. The men froze in position, unmoving. Crossing the street quickly, the two men approached the car cautiously, but their quarries never moved a muscle. The soldier let out a quick whistle.

"No wonder the Captain wants a biotic aboard so bad."

Damien looked almost irritated at that, but didn't press it further. "When their stasis rubs off, they're going to be yelling into whatever comm equipment they've got that I've got alliance military personnel agreeing to cover me. Best if we don't give them the time to change their attack plans. I recommend you shoot the console and take out the car communications hardware. Then I'll push them into a minor accident and we get out of here. They'll be too busy dealing with planetary security to get away and warn their comrades in person."

Just then, the quarries began to animate again. Quickly, Victor Stall brought up his assault rifle, shooting the hell out of the center console, but not injuring the occupants. Damien gave a shove and the car slid across the road, broadsiding another vehicle going the opposite direction. Chaos ensured immediately, and the two men retreated at a fast clip to escape the inevitable quarantine security would set up to question witnesses.

Within a half hour, Damien was in some very uncomfortable new clothes, heavy and ill-fitting. He appreciated the added sense of security only mildly. Victor and Yates both had their rifles in hand while the human and quarian walked ahead of them a few steps. They approached the spaceport carefully, watching all the angles. Within another ten minutes, they passed through planetary security with Captain Reed's assistance and were aboard the _Bunker Hill_, isolated from Elysium's threats.

First order of business was restoring the armor back to their proper owners. Next, the two were oriented with the ship, general layout, and the concept of 'hotbunking.' Since there were prescribed hours when they'd have a bed available, they tried to adapt to the ship clock as quickly as possible and spent most of their time in the mess hall together.

The _Bunker Hill_ left without incident and set course for Therum. As the ship sailed between mass effect relays, the crew was gradually adjusted to their guests, learning each other's names for the most part.

"Damien Cross." He introduced himself to the engineer.

"Gabrielle Allshouse." Came her reply. "Welcome aboard the _Bunker Hill_, Damien."

"Thanks." He replied. "Alliance frigate huh? I've never been aboard one before. Any military ship, for that matter."

"It's not so different from most spacecraft, at least as pertains to how things work aboard-ship. Lot more procedures and less freedom for the passengers, but overall there shouldn't be too many surprises."

"I'll keep that in mind." Damien replied, staring at the drive core. "That spinning deal is fascinating to look at."

"She's really pretty, isn't she." Gabrielle agreed, looking at the drive core herself. "She's known as the Tantalus drive core. Capable of generating mass effect fields ahead of the ship and using them to maneuver without using conventional sublight drive."

"You sure you can be telling me this?" Damien asked, looking at Gabrielle. "I mean, I'm a civilian, no clearance, don't forget."

"You don't tell and I won't." came her conspiratorial reply. "Actually, members of the crew are allowed in on a few of her secrets. And I know it's not official yet, but let's just say with how hard Reed's going to push this, I only see this ending one way: they're going to grant you crew status."

"They?"

"Military brass. The bigwigs at home who like to call the shots from their armchairs. Don't worry, long as you don't cause to many waves while you're aboard, there should be no reason for them to reject her request. They've got more important things to do, like strategizing actions against the Perseus Veil."

"Geth?"

"Yeah, them. You think we're letting those synthetic bastards off the hook just because their god died? Yeah, right!"

"Right, well, thanks for the tour, um..." Damien reddened slightly. "I"m not up on military protocol so I'm not rightly sure if you have a rank or something to call you by..."

"I'm the chief engineer and a Staff Lieutenant if you're feeling especially formal, but friends call me Gabrielle." Her board smile put Damien at ease.

"Right, thanks... Gabrielle."

"No problem. Come back anytime." Damien smiled in reply, turning and excusing himself. He managed to slide into the elevator just before the door began to close on the captain.

Once isolated, he felt compelled to ask, "So Captain, what's this mission on Therum? Is there anything you can tell me about what I'll be required to do? I mean, I don't have military training or anything, and I'm not much of a fighter type anyway, so I'm just curious what to expect."

Ashley Reed considered him out of the corner of her eye. "Well, there shouldn't be many surprises. Therum is a big source of heavy metals for Earth's manufacturing boom. There's a lot of different refineries dotting the landscape and a couple competing companies established there. However there was a big geth invasion of the planet a while ago—a bit before their assault on the Citadel."

"Are they still down there?"

"There's always a chance a few got left behind during the geth evacuation. You never know for certain. Keep your wits about you and stick close to the marines, you'll be fine. To be honest, the more likely scenario is you'll want to use your biotics to assist in the digging operations. The lead scientist on the surface, Doctor Liara T'Soni, is searching the ruins with an emphasis on finding more Prothean beacons."

"What are they?"

"I have no idea. You'll find out down on the surface. Anyway, _Bunker Hill_ will be providing escort for two important cargo ships on a route from Therum to Earth. After that's done, we come back and pick you and the rest of the ground team we left behind up. As first missions go, I think you'll find this one anticlimactic."

"Alright then. Thanks, Captain Reed."

"No problem." Reed let out a sigh as the door finally retreated into the floor, allowing her to step out on deck two. She headed immediately for the stairs up to the first deck with the CIC and bridge, while Damien loitered around the mess hall, briefly wondering to where Ravi had gone.

Ravi leaned against a wall in the CIC on deck one, talking to Cormon Wells, the second-in-command of _Bunker Hill_. Cormon explained, "I've served with a couple different commanding officers in my time, I've been in the service almost ten years now. First time serving under a female CO, but I guess I didn't know what to expect. Mostly, it's been the same thing. Tells me something, that if humanity could get past looking at the outside, we'd really find there's not all that much different, person to person. Or maybe humanity doesn't have a problem so much as myself. But serving on the _Bunker Hill_ has taught me an important lesson: there's no need to make distinctions, a CO is a CO is a CO."

"The flotilla adapted such a viewpoint itself long ago. We've been on ships for 300 years now, the best person for the job is always the one given the job, because we can't be picky about our labor pool. Everybody needs to do their fair share, and do what they're best at doing, for the good of the flotilla. We would have collapsed as a society a long time ago if we did not."

"That's a long time to be in space." Wells pondered. Briefly, he motioned a crewman waiting to one side over. "What've you got, son?"

The crewman brought up his omni-tool briefly, reviewing some data. "We're six minutes out from the relay, Sir. Estimated time of arrival currently an hour and ten."

"Tell Mr. Bishop to increase speed. This trip is taking forever."

"Yes, Sir." The crewman departed.

"We won't have a chance to make up time later," Cormon explained to Ravi. "The freighters are slow boats and we've got to escort them all the way back to Earth."

"How long will Damien and the others be alone on the surface?" she asked.

"They won't be _alone_, per se, but _Bunker Hill_'s round trip to Earth is expected to take roughly three to four days depending on those bucket'o'bolts they call 'freighters'. Now, forgive me for asking but the Captain hasn't told me where you'll be dropped off. Is there a destination in mind, someplace we'll be passing by perhaps?"

"Actually, Damien's still working on my new identity. Once my documents are completed he'll probably tell me where I'm landing. From there, I figure I complete my pilgrimage and make a beeline for the flotilla. I miss them and can't wait to return, meet a new captain and crew on my new ship."

"Sounds exciting," the XO offered. "Well, excuse me for a bit, I've got to get this ship ready to hit a mass relay."

"Of course," Ravi replied, motioning him to move past her, then heading down the stairs towards the elevator. She arrived in the mess hall, noticing Damien had beat her there. He was hunched over a computer set up on the table, working diligently. "Hello, Damien." The quarian greeted.

"Hello, Ravi." came a very distracted reply. "How long will you need to finish your pilgrimage?"

"I have no idea, it could be months."

"I suspected as much. See, short-term identities are a little easier to create, because they typically don't meet much scrutiny before the subject's gone and no longer requires them. Long term, you gotta make it more complete..."

"Of course, I understand."

Damien was quiet for a moment. Finally, he looked up as Ravi took a chair nearby. "Anyway, I'm just trying to say I'm working on it. Once it's finished, if you live and breathe as this new person, and no one will ever find you. I figure getting us off-world has largely removed any danger to either of our lives, but in witness protection it always pays to make contingencies and assume nothing."

"I appreciate everything you've done for me, Damien."

"No problem, just doing my job, basically." Damien replied with a sly grin. He turned back to his console and resumed working. "I've relocated hundreds of people all over the surface of Elysium. Gets to be routine after a while. They wanted to promote me up into managing one of our offices—I flat refused to do it. Working directly to save lives is kinda like a natural high for me. Would hate to have that taken away and forced to let others do the saving. Ya know?" The quarian shook her head 'no'. Damien, oblivious, continued to work and grew silent.

Quickly getting bored, Ravi stood up, politely excusing herself, and leaving to talk with others of the crew. Near the sleeping pods, she bumped into Alyssa Morgan, who was working in front of a bunch of lockers, sorting through some of her things.

"Hello!" Ravi greeted.

Alyssa turned, smiled wanly and returned, "Hello."

"Something wrong?" she asked, concerned.

Morgan shook her head. "No, it's just I happened across a picture I hadn't seen in a while. Brought back a lot of memories."

Ravi invaded her space, trying to see around her shoulder at the picture. It was a father, mother, and daughter, outdoor at some kind of park. She smiled. "Family is very important on the flotilla. Of course, our families in the broadest sense include the entire ship's crew, when you think about it. Where is your family?"

Alyssa grew a little annoyed, but managed in clipped speech, "Dead. Finally." The coldness of the statement drove Ravi to backtrack a couple steps.

"You're not very sad to see them go?"

"No. I've got to go." Alyssa threw the pile of pictures in her hands back into a box, closing it, and shoved it violently into the locker. She closed and locked it before turning swiftly, walking past Ravi so fast she left a breeze behind her.

"Curious." Ravi decided, moving on. "Maybe it's a human thing."

Elizabeth Yates was nearby, and motioned Ravi over. "Don't take it personally. The Lieutenant's family is a touchy subject. I've been wondering for months why that is. Probably best if you don't bring it up though. I've tried—you just get a pissed off superior officer. She's pretty defensive about it."

"I see. But not so for humans in general?"

"What? No!" Elizabeth replied, smiling at her naiveté. "I love talking about my family. I'm from a family with two parents, two brothers, one sister. We were pretty close in age considering there's four separate pregnancies involved there." Elizabeth sighed warmly. "My family is really close to me. They moved to a small nowhere colony called Feros about a year ago. Going to take some shore leave there once the _Bunker Hill_ is in the area. I can hardly wait to see them all again."

"Are you the oldest child?" Ravi questioned.

"Nope, I'm third. My sister's just edging on a year older than me, my little brother's a year and a couple months younger than me, and my older brother's 24—that's almost three years older than me."

"It's astonishing to me how big your family is," Ravi revered. "If only the flotilla could handle families that big. Most of us are single children."

"Wow, yeah, I never thought of that. You probably gotta keep the population pretty steady or else you'll overfill the ships, right?"

"Exactly."

"Well, let me tell ya, big families are a mixed blessing, just like so many things in life. There are times you wish you were an only child, and times you depend on your siblings and couldn't imagine getting by without them."

"It sounds quite lovely," Ravi concluded. "I should like to have multiple children one day."

"Really." Elizabeth replied with a disbelieving tone. She recovered with "Alright. Just don't say I didn't warn ya." She flashed a smile that Ravi shared.

The radio in Elizabeth's suit went off. "Yates, Stall, gear up. We're planetside with the biotic until the _Bunker Hill_ comes back to save us. Make sure you two pack some extra clothes."

Elizabeth cued her radio transmitter. "Ma'am, we going to be needing the tents, food?"

"You might want to bring a little extra food, but we'll be put up by the scientists on the ground. They've got an extra prefab trailer for us."

"Those tiny things? They sleep like two people."

"Then bring a damn tent." Alyssa snapped back. "Sorry. Just make sure you two are ready when we get to Therum. I'll grab the biotic and meet you at the mako hanger."

Once the radio connection was cleared, Elizabeth slowly stretched her back and stood up straighter, preparing to get into action. She barely heard a rather sour retort from the young quarian, muttered under her breath, "His name is Damien." Elizabeth chose not to react to it and proceeded to pack up clothes and other necessities for the mission.

* * *

Author's note: I'm also known as Ablated Crayon on the official Bioware ME forums in case you're curious. I've written a lot of fanfiction, mostly star trek, but I've never posted anything to a website like this. To be honest, I'm still not sure about all of this, so if you really want to see more of my work you should really tell me. As of this moment the entire story has been written, but when I tried uploading the whole thing the upload thing just crashes, so I guess I need to start smaller with a chapter at a time. Never fear, this story will be completed. It'd take a nuclear logic bomb virus to stop this train. Heh. I hope you enjoy, and I _really_ hope you don't mind OC centric fiction. Personally, I love exploring new characters just as much as adding to canon ones.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Damien looked up when another entered the mess hall. It was one of the marines who'd been with the Captain when he met them, but the name took a moment to connect in his mind. "Lieutenant... Morgan, right?"

"Yeah," She replied. "We're almost to Therum. Need you to get ready to disembark."

"Oh, alright." Damien answered reluctantly, quickly working to encrypt and save his progress on his personal OSD. After it finished, he quickly pocketed the OSD and followed Morgan to the equipment hanger. Once there, she began throwing him a few items, most notably a vest of armor.

"Try this on, see if it fits."

The second size he tried on fit him well, but he was unaccustomed to the weight of it. "Why is this thing so heavy? Is this another shielded suit?"

"Yes it is." Came Morgan's reply. "Standard operating procedure amongst marines, and I highly recommend it for anyone who values their life during a mission."

"Come on, you can't be serious." Damien replied, incredulous. "The Captain said we'd be digging for Prothean artifacts, not fighting a war."

"It takes exactly one bullet to end your life." Alyssa replied. "Now, you can gamble that one bullet won't greet you today. But if you do meet it, it'll take medi-gel and a miracle to survive. Or, you can wear protection, and once it deflects that one bullet, you'll be glad you had it with you."

"Ok, point taken." Damien replied, continuing to strap himself in. "How do you turn it on?"

Alyssa walked up, reaching around to point out a small interface. "Right there. There's on, off, and combat mode. If you just have it on, it's going to take as little charge as possible to create a kinetic shield around your body. It'll be strong enough for the first bullet, and that's it, generally speaking. But in combat mode, it takes a full 100 percent charge that's actually adequate protection if you've got someone with an assault rifle or other deadly weapon on them. Leave it on normal until shooting starts, obviously, or you'll run it out of power quickly. Once a hit is registered, it'll automatically engage combat mode, but it takes a moment to work, so soon as you can you better take some cover and wait for it."

"Got it, Lieutenant." Damien replied. "Thanks."

"No problem." She replied, leading the way out of the equipment room and to the hanger door near the mako. Her team was already assembled, the woman carrying a large backpack. He greeted them all with a nod, noticing Ravi standing aside, looking on. He walked over to her.

"Stay out of trouble while I'm gone, eh?"

Ravi smiled. "I doubt I'll be clubbed over the head by any random people on this ship, but sure. I'll do my best."

"Good. See you when I get back." He shook her hand, then turned and walked up to the others. The Captain appeared on deck, causing the marines to stiffen to attention. Respectfully, Damien did the same. She nodded, stating, "at ease," and walked over to the panel controlling the hanger door, opening it. The rush of air moving past the ship quickly became a powerful roar, but everyone could still hear her command.

"Stay safe, Lieutenant. Bring them all back no worse for wear. I appreciate your volunteering to take this mission. Now, when you get down there, report to Doctor T'Soni. She'll get you situated. Just follow her lead."

"Aye, aye, Ma'am." The Lieutenant called out over the wind.

"Off with you," replied the captain. She stood by watching as each of them attached a carabiner to the roof hooks near the open hatch.

Looking rather puzzled, Damien looked for another rope with a carabiner at the end for himself. Not seeing one, he wondered how he would get to the ground intact, when Morgan interrupted him. "Newbie, over here. First timers piggyback until they get the hang of it."

Damien's embarrassment grew as he stood directly behind Lieutenant Morgan and had a crewman attach them together. Now he was lashed to her back, basically, and together they backed up, facing away from the open air. He called out, "Just say when—" but felt her push off only a moment later, sending them both over the edge and falling down. With one hand, Morgan adjusted their descent to a slow, manageable pace, eventually depositing them last on the ground of the four. She unclipped the rope, calling into her radio, "All clear, Ma'am. Good luck out there."

"You as well," came the captain's reply before the _Bunker Hill_ suddenly arched away, hatch still wide open, and started to accelerate away into the clouds. With a few minutes of fumbling, some semblance of personal space was once again established between Damien and Alyssa.

"Couldn't have warned me?" Damien asked, exacerbated.

"Better if I don't." She replied matter-of-factually. "Everybody worries they're going to die, best to get it over with, and show them there's nothing to worry about. It gets easier the more you practice and especially the more you actually do it."

"Right." He replied, still somewhat in shock. "Ok so where's this base?"

"Hundred yards to your right." Elizabeth Yates replied. "Not much of a base, though. Just a couple of trailer prefabs and then the ruins behind them."

Damien turned and looked, spying the small buildings in the distance. "Cool." He answered. "Was worried there was a couple klick's worth of military marching just to make sure I know how far out of my element I really am."

Victor Stall laughed at that. "We're not evil, Civvy."

"Well, all except our esteemed Lieutenant, of course." Yates batted back.

Alyssa Morgan played it effortlessly. "Of course. Someone's gotta crack the whip around here. Just call me 'The Man'."

Damien and the others shared a moment of laughter before starting for the camp. They arrived at 1310 local time, joining the researchers for lunch and meeting Doctor T'Soni, the asari archaeologist in charge of this endeavor.

After they ate, T'Soni lead Damien to the ruins, while the marines worked to set up their camp and establish their perimeter. Alone, he asked her, "So, why are we here? The Captain wasn't very clear what was needed, I mean, I assume normal labor from Nova Yekaterinburg could handle any additional manpower needs you might normally need."

"Of course," Liara replied. "What I really need is another biotic or two to work with me in the ruins. Some things are just plain easier if you don't have to move it the old fashioned way. Well, easier and better for the delicate ruins beneath. There are no biotics in the capital right now. I was distressed to hear Captain Reed was unable to find a biotic in your armed forces to help me. Of course, extra manpower is still a good thing. Just not quite as good."

"You're in luck," Damien replied. "Because after the captain sent that message to you, she found me. I'm a biotic."

"Really?" Liara asked, impressed. "Where did you train?"

"Uh, mostly informal training. I'm not in the Systems Alliance military."

"Hmm. Alright. Can you handle biotics carefully enough without some serious training, though?"

"See for yourself." Damien offered.

Liara pointed out a large boulder she'd obviously removed from blocking a tunnel entrance almost a meter in diameter. "Lift that boulder and carefully bring it over here, and set it down."

Damien took a deep breath, calling on his inner reserves. Biotic energy flared around him, glowing purple and adding a faint taint to the moderate lighting in the ruin. The energy shot out, enveloping the boulder, making it light and then using new gravimetric forces he created above it to pull it into the air, where it hovered. Damien took another deep breath, trying to remain in complete control, and changed the gravimetric forces again, now causing the boulder to translate horizontally, keeping it at the same general height it floated at before. Soon as he reached the area of open space Liara had indicated, he slowly let go, reducing the biotic forces, allowing it to settle neatly on the ground, causing a minimum of dirt and dust to rise into the air. The biotics dimmed and disappeared and Liara smiled. "Well this is exciting. With the two of us, we should be able to reach the antechamber before you leave!"

"Antechamber?"

"Yes, just before the room that is this excavation's ultimate goal there is an antechamber. Sonic imaging confirms it. Once we unearth the antechamber there's very little obstruction to get into the larger room in which I'm interested."

"Nice. Well, let's get started then," Damien offered. "Sounds exciting."

She smiled. "Let's get the rest of the team over here before we start this on our own."

"Ahh, right!" Damien replied. "Yeah, better do that too."

The rest were gathered in short order and work began. They worked solid for several hours, stopping just as the sun set and temperatures began to fall. Liara explained, "Therum has a 28 hour day. Takes a little getting used to when you come from a planet or ship with shorter days. Trust me, by this time tomorrow, you'll understand what I mean."

"Alright." Damien replied, wiping sweat from his brow, careful to avoid getting the dirt and sand on his forehead by using the back of his hand and arm. "This armor isn't helping. I think I'll take it off tomorrow."

"I noticed that," Liara replied. "I was a bit worried you'd turn out to be another marine—more at home on a battlefield than at a dig site."

Damien nodded. "Yeah, well, no worries there. I'm just a civilian. I agreed to join the _Bunker Hill_ due to—extenuating circumstances. This armor was a marine's bright idea, though."

Liara was already not listening. "There's signs of a power source in the large room we're attempting to reach," Liara noted, studying her omni-tool. "We may be lucky enough to come across some working Prothean technology."

"Oh? Neat." Damien replied, a little miffed at her lack of social graces. He didn't let it get to him, instead walking back to camp with the rest of the team, looking for the marines he'd recognize from the ship. They seemed to be out of sight.

About ten minutes after sitting down at the campsite, all three marines appeared from different directions, closing on the camp from a far-off distance. They met up at Damien's table, each taking a seat and a large swig of water. "Hot planet." Elizabeth noted.

"I noticed," Victor added ruefully.

For the first time, Damien realized how badly he'd been sweating today. He took and filled a fresh canteen with water, and returned to his seat, drinking it down thirstily. "Ease up," Alyssa interrupted, "Or you'll drink yourself sick."

Puzzled, Damien slowed his efforts down and capped the canteen, setting it on the table. "Water makes you sick? I must have lost liters today, I figure I'm just replenishing that."

"Well, that is the ultimate goal." Alyssa explained. "But you can't just drink it all at once. Human bodies don't work like that. Temperance is key, a little here, and little there."

"Got it." Damien answered. He was still thirsty, but decided to wait on rectifying that. "So what did you guys do all day?"

"Oh man, don't ask." Victor replied. "Finding good sniper nests—"

Elizabeth cut in, "setting up a perimeter around the camp."

"Watching for unusual comm chatter." Alyssa concluded. "Pretty routine, not good small talk material. How was your day, Mr. Archaeologist?"

Damien smiled. "Hard work. I'm hungry. Biotics makes you burn calories pretty fast when you use it for a long time, I've noticed. Before, it's always been a spurt here and there. To be asked to do it for hours on end is, well, quite draining."

"No doubt." Elizabeth chimed in. "Just don't get yourself sick. You know how these alien worlds can be."

"Eh? Not really." Damien replied. "I've lived on Elysium all my life, didn't move between worlds very often or for very long. Mostly just trips my job sent me on to learn to be a better agent."

Alyssa came back into the conversation. "Take it from someone who's been on a lot of worlds: the microbes on this world are guaranteed to be different from anything your immune system knows about. So if you overwork yourself, you'll develop a nasty bug really fast. You still might, but hopefully not."

"Heh I didn't even think of that. Probably why Liara was always telling me to take it easy today. You know it's been years since I've been sick on Elysium."

"Lucky." Victor replied. "Plus staying in one place really helps in that department. Generally speaking illness is more common among anyone who travels between worlds routinely. Even I've caught an alien bug or two in my time."

"What makes it 'alien'?" Damien asked.

Victor pondered this. "I suppose I was the alien, really."

"Exactly." Damien commended him. Victor smiled and took another chug of water. Feeling the burn in his own throat, Damien uncapped his and did likewise. Dinner passed quickly and without event, and as the last rays of the sun disappeared, the generators brought up the camp's lights and Liara showed the four what bunks were available. Elizabeth, having brought two tents, volunteered to use one of them, along with Victor. This left Damien and Alyssa together in one of the prefabs, bunking with a few others.

Lights went out once things were completely settled. That night, Damien awoke to the strange noises of natural wildlife on Therum. It was disconcerting at first, but he eventually became calm and shut out the sounds long enough to fall back asleep. The next day, the camp woke up before the sun had risen over the horizon and prepared for another hard day of work, including a very healthy and very big breakfast.

Alyssa Morgan took guard duty first shift, and struck off for a sniper's nest not far from camp but located high enough to have a commanding view of the area. The other marines were to join in working on the ruins since the likelihood of enemies arriving was extremely small.

As the heat of the day set in, work petered down and a long break was taken around high noon while the area was at its hottest, well over a hundred and thirty degrees. Thanks to the wonders of science, thermal suits were available, beckoning them back to work despite the heat. Once Damien tried on a thermal suit, however, he was quite surprised how comfortable it made the temperatures. He noticed how difficult it was to work in the suit with his hands, and began to depend more heavily on biotics alone to work, as he saw Liara T'Soni doing. It became clear to him then, why she'd wanted another biotic to help her so badly. It was obvious the suits made progress more difficult for all the normal, non-biotic humans at the site. Not impossible by any means, but noticeably longer than either Liara or Damien. The two separated to work on different areas of the dig site for most of the day, and he only met together with Victor, Elizabeth, Alyssa, and Liara at the evening meal. Most of the conversation revolved around the dig site's progress that day, and the very impressive heat outside of the thermal suits.

As temperatures once again cooled this evening, the suits were taken off and hung back up in closets in the prefab trailers. Damien's suit of armor had been unworn the entire day and he had no desire to resume using it while working in the ruins. After a while, Liara excused herself to talk with other scientists at other tables, and the four steered the conversation towards more lighthearted subjects.

The next two, nearly two and a half days were spent much the same. Finally, as the _Bunker Hill_ reported its ETA within four hours, the antechamber was unearthed, Liara and Damien the first in. They had a much easier time once in the antechamber getting to the larger room behind it. As the two walked in, a Prothean beacon sat near one side of the room, with a conference table and chairs on the other, and long-dead consoles that used to relay some kind of information. "This looks an awful lot like the _Beacon Hill_." Damien put forth.

Liara frowned. "How so?"

"All these consoles, for the people at the table, and the oval shape of the table. It's a lot like the CIC on the _Bunker Hill_."

"Ahh. Good point. I would agree that this room was meant for some kind of strategic planning sessions, and the beacon's proximity means they probably made decisions here and sent them out via the beacons. Perhaps this is a war room."

"Yeah, could be," Damien replied. "Looks like the beacon's the only thing working." He approached it when suddenly a biotic stasis enveloped him, holding him completely still.

It wore off quickly, and Liara explained, "beacons are activated by proximity. I doubt you want to get a Prothean message shoved into your mind. There's a chance it could cause brain damage in humans since it is not meant for your physiology."

"Right." Damien carefully backed away from the beacon. "Thanks for the heads up."

"No problem," Liara replied. "I must admit, the temptation to use the beacon myself is very strong. I've received the Cipher which should allow me to translate it easily. However, my experience is second-hand, I've never directly exposed myself to a beacon."

Damien didn't really have anything else to say, so he merely walked up to the conference table and took a seat to relax. More people shuffled in slowly, blocking the only way out with their influx. Liara kept everyone away from the beacon while using her omni-tool, probably gathering information on the beacon's condition. Intrigued by the interface, Damien pressed a few buttons on the dead console built into the table in front of his chair. Nothing seemed to happen. Sitting back, he briefly wondered what other assignments would be like on the _Bunker Hill_. Surely some would be more exciting than others, but overall his single greatest fear was the captain's intentions—she very well might wish to turn him into a living weapon, a soldier.

He was fairly certain he wouldn't abide by that. If push came to shove—she did leave him a way out. The trick was, would this way out remain available if and when he decided to take it. She might double-cross, but that was sub-optimal, since it would place such animosity between them he doubted he'd ever listen to another word she said. And Reed didn't need an uncooperative biotic. Surely, the missions to come would help define his job parameters more clearly. Hopefully, everything would work out. For having never lived primarily aboard a ship, he was quickly becoming used to it, and the differences were still new and interesting compared to the normalcy of his existence on Elysium.

A clicking sound came from in front of Damien, from inside the table. It ripped him from his musings back into the present. The table console began to glow—weakly, but there. He gasped. Others noticed and gathered around. Liara had to push her way to the front to see what was going on. When she spied the words on the screen, she instantly recognized the Prothean written word. "You got it working!" She elated, unable to control her scientific excitement.

Damien smiled. "Sure looks like it's working. Wonder what it says."

Liara worked for several minutes, glancing between her omni-tool and the console. She translated the few words displayed into standard. "It says, 'Enter clearance.' It must be security encrypted!"

"Huh." Damien replied. He stood up, forcing his way through the crowd. "You guys have fun with that then." He returned to the dig site proper through the antechamber and then, after waiting a few minutes, decided he might as well return to the camp. He struck off, but froze mid-step when he felt the ground shudder. It passed quickly, returning to solid ground so quickly he almost wondered if he imagined it. Then another shudder... larger. "Crap." Damien took off at a run back the way he'd come to help evacuate everyone from the ruins in case they destabilized from the earthquake. As he arrived, the tremors returned, the fullest force yet, shaking everything and making it noticeably more difficult to stand. Scientists were running past and Damien grabbed the nearest one, helping her along towards the exit of the cavern. As the last ones left, Damien stuck his head in to check for anyone left behind. To his utter surprise, he saw Liara T'Soni standing ramrod-straight with a meter in the air under her feet. "The hell?"

Another tremor, and Liara fell to the ground, unconscious. Damien ran up to her, pulling her up to her knees, but she was utterly unresponsive. A piece of rock ceiling gave away, falling to the ground in a loud clatter, and renewing a sense of urgency to escaping from the ruins. _If a rock falls and hits me in the head or neck, we're both dead. There's no one to save us but us._ With this in mind, Damien decided to use a fireman's carry, first spending a little biotic energy to lighten Liara. This allowed him to move her quickly into position, and soon as she was situated over his shoulders and he was moving through the antechamber, he allowed her weight to return to normal to conserve strength.

The difficult part over, Damien trudged up the beaten path as quickly as he could, careful to avoid uneven rocks and terrain to avoid spraining an ankle. What seemed like an eternity passed by, the sound of rocks falling constantly unnerving him. He saw the light ahead that marked escape and burst out as a full-out run. He caught up to the rest of the scientists from the dig site.

Victor, Elizabeth, and Alyssa coordinated the frightened group, commanding them back to the campsite and taking a head count at the same time. When Alyssa spied Damien at the end of the line, carrying Liara, she ran up, concerned.

"What happened?" she asked. She noticed immediately both were covered in a great deal of dust.

Damien took a deep gulp of air, winded from his uphill climb and the subsequent running full tilt to escape the ruins. Finally, he answered, "I have no idea. She was floating—and then just fell—the place was coming down—around me, so I picked her up and ran like hell."

"Let's get her down and take her vitals," Alyssa answered, helping Damien gently dismount her. Once she was on the ground, Alyssa held her head and upper body as still as possible while Damien motioned Elizabeth over. "Help me get her vitals." Alyssa ordered.

Elizabeth wasted no time, getting down on her knees with Alyssa and looking for a pulse. Damien stood by, transfixed as he watched them care over the asari. Elizabeth nodded and Alyssa looked relieved, but it came a moment too late for Damien. He'd unconsciously been holding his breath as he feared for Liara's safety, and passed out, falling to the ground with a sickening thud he could feel just before giving in fully to unconsciousness.

A moment later, Elizabeth was slapping his cheeks, forcing him to breathe and return to the world of the living. Damien shook it off, and other than a very poignant headache, he seemed undamaged. He breathlessly thanked Elizabeth for helping him, and sat up, taking in his surroundings once again. The ground, thankfully, seemed solid enough at present. However, the illusion was shattered only moments later as aftershocks continued.

Liara came to then, and Damien quickly worked his way over to her by crawling a few steps. "You ok?"

"Doc's coming around,"

"Are you alright?"

Everyone spoke over each other, crowding her. She quite visibly recoiled as she opened her eyes and Alyssa ordered the other two back to give her some air. She continued to hold Liara still. "I said, are you alright, Doctor T'Soni?"

"Y-yes, I'm fine." She stammered, blinking in the bright light of the surface. "What—happened?"

Damien cut in then, "You were in the chamber with the beacon, and you passed out during an earthquake, I think. I carried you out of the ruins. We're about halfway to camp."

"I—I remember. I was worried we would lose the ruins—the beacon—"

"Ruins are fine, Doctor." Alyssa shot Damien a telling look that commanded him to agree to perpetuate her assumption. "Just take it easy, don't move."

"Why are you holding me in your lap?" Liara asked, confused.

"We were worried you might have injured your back, neck. Movement could exacerbate that. We just want to make sure you're ok before we go moving around any more than necessary."

"I feel fine—" Liara complained, but secretly knew that she felt horrible, especially her head.

Damien nodded, trying to placate her with a smile. "Take it easy, Doctor. You'll be ok."

"Thanks—for—carrying me, Damien."

He smiled wider. "No problem."

Elizabeth let her omni-tool shut down. "You've got a concussion Liara. It's mild, by human standards anyway. We got to be careful because I have no freaking idea what a hit to the head does to an asari."

"We should get her to a doctor!" Damien stated emphatically.

"Hey, cut that out. I'm in charge here." Alyssa warned him with an edginess in her voice she didn't use often. "Ok, Liara, let's try to sit you up straight. Nice and slow." Together, they managed to get her sitting upright, and Elizabeth and Alyssa both got under one of her shoulders, slowly standing up, carefully watching Liara to make sure she didn't pass out. She seemed fine, but obviously pained. Then they began walking together, Damien leading the way to the camp, getting out the medical supplies.

Another half-hour passed when Alyssa's radio crackled to life. She quickly acknowledged the signal. "Lieutenant Morgan here, _Bunker Hill_ is that you?"

"Lieutenant Morgan, this is _Bunker Hill_ actual," a female voice responded. "We've just reached orbit and we'll be descending to a landing site two klicks the campsite south by south-west."

"Captain, you better come here first. Get the wire gurney ready. Doctor T'Soni's been injured and we need to get her checked out by a doctor ASAP."

Over the radio, they heard Reed say something below her breath. Then, she barked out, "Mr. Wells, change our vector to take us directly above the campsite. Get Doctor Roberts down to the mako bay and prepare the wire gurney. I want us hovering over that campsite five minutes ago!" Then, she returned her attention back to the ground team. "Lieutenant, what happened?"

"Earthquake, Ma'am. It appears T'Soni took something to the head. Only light lacerations on her head, but Yates reports she's got a mild concussion. I want to make sure her head injury will heal up ok on it's own."

"How long ago?"

"Twenty minutes. She's alert and responsive, but she's talking a little slow in my experience."

"We'll be there in no time," Reed assured her. "How's the rest of the team?"

"We're all fine. Damien fainted, that's it."

At that, Damien's face grew visibly red even through his suit's visor. "Hey, I saved her life." He jabbed back, trying to save face.

"The scientists?"

"Hold, Captain." Alyssa switched her radio to contact Victor Stall. "What's the head count, marine?"

"All present and accounted for. No serious injuries."

She switched back to the _Bunker Hill_. "All present and accounted for, no other serious injuries, Captain."

"We're thirty ticks away, hang tight. Get ready to load the Doctor onto the gurney."

"Yes, Captain." She replied. Together with Elizabeth, they got Liara to her feet, who seemed more sickly now than twenty minutes ago. She puked, and the two marines quickly worked her back down to a more favorable altitude for her. The _Bunker Hill_ came upon them then, the noise of her arrival barely beating her physical arrival. She came to hover over the camp with a deafening roar of powerful atmospheric thrusters, which beat down on the ground and stirred up an instant sandstorm. The mako gate was open, just like when Damien and the marines had left the ship, but a gurney connected to a swivel arm was swung out and lowered instead of just a rope like last time. Soon as the gurney was low enough, Stall grabbed it, holding it steady, while the two women carefully situated Liara. They strapped her in with quick-remove snaps to keep her from falling over the side and then gave a hand wave, all three backing away from the gurney simultaneously. Damien watched helplessly as the gurney retreated back into the sky and Liara disappeared into the hold. The massive door started to close and the engines screeched louder yet as _Bunker Hill_ set course south by south-west, heading for the landing site they'd told Alyssa about earlier. Alyssa ordered her marines to pack it in and in no time even the tents were packed up and loaded. Damien and the marines stuck off for their ship, leaving the scientists behind to deal with the fallout.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Damien and Ravi sat, uncommunicative, in the mess hall as Doctor Roberts looked Liara over. Finally, he broke the silence. "Not the way I envisioned my first mission ending." He stated simply, somewhat guiltily. "Lead scientist nearly dies on peaceful archeology mission."

"Don't blame yourself," Ravi answered, somewhat too quickly. "You did all you could."

"Yeah," Damien answered. He thrummed his fingers on the large table absentmindedly. "Before today it was pretty boring. I caught myself wishing for some action a couple of times there. Kinda seems stupid now."

Ravi didn't answer. She wasn't really certain what to say. Finally, Damien tapped the computer's controls harshly, booting up the extranet. He began working on Ravi's papers to distract himself. Several hours later, Alyssa and her team came to the mess hall, chatting nonchalant. Elizabeth Yates noticed the intense look Damien gave the computer screen. "What's eating you, Civvy?" She asked.

Damien looked up, annoyed at her for ruining his distraction. "Liara." He said simply.

"No one told you?" Alyssa joined in, and chuckled to herself. "She's fine, Civvy. Just a bump on the head. Roberts finished his exam hours ago. Nobody told you?"

"Uh, er, no." He admitted. "I was thrown out of the infirmary so I just came here to wait."

"You can go see her in the infirmary if you want," Alyssa continued, an evil smirk playing at the corner of her mouth.

Damien shot her a retaliatory look. "Maybe I will."

"Maybe you should," She pressed.

Damien didn't answer, returning to his console, and again giving it a fierce look. Morgan and squad laughed at his expense then, but soon steered into their own conversations and mostly left him alone. Since he'd yet to do any meaningful work with the extranet link, Damien decided to slip away to the infirmary. Unfortunately it was in plain view of the mess hall from where the three sat together, and he could have sworn he heard another swell of laughter behind his back as he entered. He sighed, forcing himself to let go of his anger before it caused his biotics to flare. That would be what they would want, after all, to know he let them under his skin.

He noticed Liara, lying supine on a bed, sheets covering her. As he walked up quietly, he saw she was asleep. He looked questioningly over at Doctor Roberts, who came up beside him and spoke in hushed tones. "You here to check on her?" She asked.

"Yeah," He answered almost wordlessly.

"She's fine. Her body's healing the damage, there's a very low risk of her slipping into a coma, so I decided let her catch a few winks. It's better for her healing process anyway."

"Thought concussions you had to stay awake," Damien pointed out, "At least, all the extranet shows seem to agree on that."

"Heh," came a quiet, disparaging laugh. "First of all, extranet shows are a horrible place to do medical research. Secondly, they're right, but only if you're worried about a coma. I'm not. She'll wake up just fine."

"Ok." Damien deferred to the woman's judgment. "Thanks Doctor."

Liara shifted, suddenly awake, and the Doctor excused herself politely, heading for her desk. Damien felt Liara's gaze on him, and willed himself to not get embarrassed at being caught watching her sleep. "Damien." She said simply.

Damien cleared his throat. "Uh, hi Liara. Sorry for waking you up, I was just asking the doctor how you were."

"I am fine." She declared.

"Yes, that's what I'm told." Damien answered. "Well, I'll be going now. Glad to see you're ok." He turned, walking swiftly towards the door.

"Damien," Liara called out after him. He stopped in place, turned and looked at her levelly. "Thanks," She added. "You saved my life."

"No problem, Doctor." Damien replied, smiling. "Really glad you're ok." With that, he turned again and left. Liara laid back down, resting contentedly in the soft pillow. Doctor Roberts came up, then, taking a look at the readings registered on Liara's bedside console.

"Sleep ok, Liara?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes, thank you." Liara replied. "How much longer must I stay for observation?"

"Another six hours and you are officially out of the danger zone." she replied. The Doctor turned to go, but Liara called her back. "Doctor, uh, I'm not quite sure how to phrase this—but—is it possible he is attracted to me?"

"Who? Damien Cross? I'd say more than a chance." She smirked, giving Liara a wink. Liara did not seem to be put at ease. Roberts noticed and questioned, "Why?"

"Well, I'm not exactly—interested—in him," She admitted. "He makes me a little—uncomfortable."

"You don't have to see him if you do not wish to." Roberts told her. "Never underestimate the power of a doctor's order aboard a Systems Alliance vessel."

"No, that's quite alright." Liara answered. "I shall find my own way to tell him. Thank you again, Doctor Roberts."

"Certainly, Liara. And call me Gazelle!" She smiled, again leaving Liara's side to work on her reports.

Soon as Liara was discharged, she headed directly for the CIC one deck up. She entered upon a flurry of activity the level of which disoriented her slightly at first, but she quickly recovered, spying a man who seemed to be giving a lot more orders than implementing himself. "Excuse me, but I need to speak with the Captain," She asked.

Corman Wells studied the blue skinned asari standing in front of him. He'd heard about the doctor in the infirmary, but now that she was up and about, he thought they'd be transferring her back to Therum proper and be on their way. "May I inquire as to why?" He asked, slightly put off by her presumptive attitude.

"It's a matter of some delicacy," Liara replied. "And I simply must speak with him in private."

"It's her, actually." Wells replied. "And seeing as I'm second in command here, I think you'd better tell me what this is about."

Liara seemed distraught, but she quickly recovered. "Ok, well, I received a message through the Prothean beacon in the ruins. It told me of a probe sent by the ancient inhabitants of Therum during the extinction of the Protheans. They wanted to learn why the mass relay network was suddenly offline, so they built a special probe to utilize their best FTL technology. The probe sent a message back to the beacon I found, telling it mission complete. Since the Protheans were wiped out by the Reapers, it is conceivable that the probe was never recovered. That means that somewhere in the traverse is a probe with potential scans of Reaper ships and technology."

"You don't know where, though?" Cormon asked for clarification. "Space is big—"

"I have some inklings to where it is from the beacon." Liara answered. "I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I have a good idea."

"Alright, I'll tell the Captain and give you a chance to make your case to her," Wells replied. "Now, if you don't mind, we're trying to work here."

"Of course, Commander." Liara replied, guessing his rank when she recognized markings identical to those she'd observed on Commander Shepard. Cormon nodded and Liara returned to the infirmary to wait. Within a half hour, she was given a chance to make her case to the captain, a woman referred only to as "Captain Reed."

Reed examined Liara's makeshift drawing of a star chart, recognizing the system immediately. "This is in the traverse," Reed stated unhappily. "Alliance ships are not welcome there, and it's going to be hard to find our probe without drawing attention to ourselves in the process. I'm afraid they'll never go for it."

"Forgive me, I am not aware how this ship compares to the _Normandy_, but that ship possessed a stealth system which allowed it to get all the way to Ilos and back undetected. Certainly there's some way—"

Wells interrupted, "We don't have the bloody stealth system. That's cutting edge technology on the _Normandy._ The _Bunker Hill_ was constructed before that technology was fully developed. If you want to use stealth, you need to convince Shepard to take you there."

"That should not be difficult for me," Liara replied. "I worked with him before, and we became close friends."

"I saw the _Normandy_ at Elysium on our way to you." Reed recalled. "It's possible they're still nearby. If so, we can contact Shepard and arrange a rendezvous."

"I'll set up a call in the comm room," Wells offered. "We can find out soon enough."

"Let's do it." Reed decided. "Follow me, Doctor T'Soni."

The three returned to deck one and entered the comm room, where Wells immediately worked to set up a communication link with the buoys responsible for FTL communications. Soon, a red hologram appeared, with Commander Shepard standing resolute, still wearing some kind of body armor that lent further to his authoritative presence. "Captain Reed," He acknowledged, visibly surprised to see Liara T'Soni. "Liara?"

"It is good to see you again, Shepard." Liara answered, smiling widely.

"Commander, Liara's come into some information about the Reapers. She needs your help to trace down her lead. I'll let her fill you in on the details. Most of it flew over my head, anyway."

- - - - -

_Normandy_ came out of FTL at Liara's behest. Her sensors began scanning the system, spying an anomalous signal from the asteroid field. Carefully, Joker took the ship into the field and brought the signal into visual range.

"That's it!" Liara cried, happily. "The probe!"

"Lock up everything in the mako bay and prepare to depressurize it." Shepard ordered. "We're going to pick that up without an EVA if possible. Joker, keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Don't let them surprise us."

"Wouldn't dream of it, Commander." Joker replied cockily. "Screen's are free and clear, except for the million metric tons of rock floating around here."

"Keep her steady until the mako bay is prepared." Shepard added. "Pressley, oversee the depressurization. I don't want anything overlooked or missed."

"Aye, aye, Commander." Pressley replied. He quickly left the CIC, heading down the steps to the elevator. Under his direction, everything was secured and double-checked. A few crew remained in the bay with him in space suits, and the air was slowly vented. Soon the large door was opened and Pressley was looking at the dark hulks of massive asteroids and one shiny metallic surface—the probe.

On the bridge, Joker closed range on the probe, carefully using his sensors to bring the probe in line with the _Normandy's_ bay opening. As the range closed, the probe began transmitting signals that momentarily overwhelmed his sensors. He quickly recovered, bringing the _Normandy_ to a stop as it surrounded the probe. Over the radio, Pressley reported, "Got it, bringing it to the ground. Careful. There. Strap it in. Commander, we are good for gravity and closing the bay door."

"Do it," Shepard ordered. "Good job, Joker."

Joker bit his tongue slightly. "Yes, Sir." He was distracted by the probe's strange behavior a moment ago, trying to puzzle out what it could mean, and if it might be harmful to the ship. He didn't have time to contemplate it, however, as his sensors registered the flare-like signal of an FTL drive as a ship reentered normal spacetime. "Captain, new ship on radar. Intercept course. Will be here in one minute."

"Pressley, status?"

"Probe is secure, gravity's coming on nice and slow. We should have the gravity to normal in thirty seconds, then it's going to take several minutes to repressurize the bay."

"Hurry it along, we've got a bogey on intercept. Two minutes."

"Yes, Sir." Pressley replied, cutting the channel and beginning to bark orders to the two crewman in the bay with him. "You heard the man, let's get a move on!" Despite his best efforts, there was no hurrying the reapplication of gravity without injuring all three of them. Joker set a slow acceleration to get the _Normandy_ moving off from the bogey without moving quickly enough to throw the three men into the back wall of the mako bay.

The other ship accelerated to full sublight cruising speed to intercept, and judging by its speed, Joker made the informed decision the bogey was a frigate class, designed for speed and recon over brute strength. However he was not familiar with the design, and couldn't testify to its combat potential.

"The bogey's almost on us, Commander." Joker warned. "Moving fast—frigate class."

"Full power to the kinetic barriers. Fire control, lock on target and warm up GARDIAN." The 2nd Lieutenant at fire control began powering up _Normandy's_ point-defense system, an interconnected, computer-driven array of small lasers, designed to shoot down missiles, torpedoes, or small one-man fighter craft. "Hail the vessel," Shepard commanded. After complying, the comm officer reported no joy.

"Commander, they've accelerated to full burn—attack run imminent!" reported one crewman working at the CIC. "Incoming projectile!" Before he could even finish his warning, the projectile had already impacted the _Normandy's_ kinetic barriers, which absorbed its kinetic energy masterfully, but lost some integrity in the process.

"Full gravity and acceleration compensation restored!" Bellowed Pressley over the comm. "Ready for evasive maneuvers!" Joker didn't waste a moment, immediately calling on the massive power from his military thrusters. The crew were pressed backwards only slightly thanks to the compensators, and _Normandy_ began moving off at a more respectable pace for a ship of her class. The attacker pressed his momentary advantage, however, firing off several more mass accelerator rounds which Joker was unable to avoid. The attacker attempted to maintain his advantage, remaining in the blind spot to _Normandy's_ aft, pressing its shots home. Joker deftly piloted the ship, bringing it about in a tight 180-degree inversion, facing his enemy in seconds flat, and firing the sublight engines for all they were worth. The sudden redirection scheme paid off, forcing the attacker to shoot past _Normandy. _Joker spun again, giving _Normandy_ an advantageous firing position, if only briefly.

"Get us out of here," Shepard ordered, watching the battle on the CIC holographics. "That ship's just a pirate looking for a cheap kill. We've got a mission objective to protect. Joker—spin up the FTL and set course for the relay out of here."

With slight chagrin at not being complimented for his expert maneuver, nor pressing the attack in retribution, Joker began calling up the FTL systems and setting course for relay through which they'd entered the system. The attacker swung around, belatedly firing more rounds at the ship. One struck home by chance, and the kinetic barriers wavered and failed. The remainder of the energy went straight up _Normandy's_ tailpipe, striking a thruster and causing moderate damage. A moment later, the ship entered FTL and escaped, hurt.

Shepard and the rest of the crew felt the noticeable impact of a round against the hull. "Report!" he bellowed out. Everyone at the CIC checked their consoles, but reported no damage. However, Engineer Adams' voice came over the comm with a foreboding tone.

"Commander, we've got bad diagnostic data spitting out from one of the thrusters. Recommend we leave FTL immediately and check the thrusters for damage."

"We're still well in range of the other vessel," Shepard reasoned. "If the others can handle it, we need to keep moving."

"I'll disable the damaged thruster immediately," Adams reported. "Helm, you better be ready for this."

Joker huffed in contempt. "Whenever _you're_ ready, engineering. Don't worry about me."

"Shutting down in five seconds... Four... Three... Two... One... Now!" With that, Adams cut off the power to the thruster and Joker adjusted the forces exerted by the other three to compensate. His FTL destination drift calculation rose significantly, but he bit his lip. It would have to do, and he could still make it by sublight to the relay in short order.

"Pressley, I want a full ship status when you get back here." Shepard ordered, walking down from the galaxy map platform. "Engineering, we'll take a full accounting of the damage once we're back in safe space."

"Acknowledged," Adams replied unhappily. "I'll keep my eye out we may have other things start to fail if the damage made it beyond the thruster assembly proper."

"Good." Shepard replied, closing his radio link to engineering, and walking up to the banks of heat management stations, inspecting them to get a rough assessment of burn time before he'd have to let the ship sit and radiate its heat buildup.

- - - - -

Liara shut down her omni-tool in frustration. The probe was entirely self-sealed and apparently had no desire to link up to her technology via any form of radiation transmission. It seemed to be built purposely to interface only with the Prothean console she had been studying in the war room before the earthquake struck. All her attempts to emulate the device were unsuccessful, owing to her lack of real information on how that console was designed to work as it was a very recent find and not yet well researched.

Shepard came up behind her, but she could feel him coming down the elevator long before she could hear or see him. She stood, radiating frustration at the probe's insolence, helpless to hide it from him. She turned and looked him in the eyes, and he faltered in his steps, but recovered quickly. "No luck, huh?"

Liara shook her head, rather depressed she hadn't had a chance to examine its potential wealth of information on the last Reaper invasion. "I am now of the opinion that it cannot be examined until we bring it to the console my colleague found on Therum."

"Colleague?"

Liara's blue cheeks changed shades almost imperceptibly, a slight blush. "Technically no, I only met him a few days ago." She faltered. "I do not wish to cause you concern, it is my problem and I will handle it."

Shepard looked unconvinced and more than a little curious now. "Let's go to my quarters. I want to hear all about this problem colleague of yours."

Liara did not want to comply, but when Shepard used that commanding tone of his, it brooked no disagreement and she found herself walking alongside him. Soon as they were safely sequestered in privacy, he sat in a chair, motioning her to use the bed, and gave Liara his undivided attention.

"So what's up? You met this guy, gal, whatever, a couple days ago and already you're embarrassed by it? Let me tell you Liara, this doesn't exactly make me feel confident about us or what's coming next."

Liara struggled to put everything into perspective so she could explain it and put Shepard at ease. "Well, the _Bunker Hill_ brought a biotic to help me unearth the war room where I found the beacon that lead us here. His name is Damien. Don't give me that look, it's not like that," She chastised him then, and he begrudgingly returned to a more neutral poker face. "There was an earthquake, and I hurriedly used the beacon in case we were about to lose it forever. I decided since I'd already received the Cipher and your vision I might be able to process it. Thankfully, I was."

"Get to the part about this Damien guy." Shepard commanded. "Hurry up before I drive myself mad."

"I said it isn't like that, Shepard, you must know I am committed to our relationship. Asari do not take unions lightly, I've explained that numerous times before. But—that doesn't stop him from—_being_ _interested_ in me, apparently."

"Oh," Shepard mouthed, finally getting some idea what had her so embarrassed. "Well, don't take it personally, Liara, I'm sure he's not all that up and familiar on asari customs, hell, do we even know if he knows we're bonded?"

"I suppose we don't," Liara admitted. "I found out about his feelings rather suddenly, just before coming to the _Normandy _for this mission. He visited me in sickbay, I could tell he was deeply concerned for me." Liara looked down at her hands, which were writhing together for no particular reason other than a vain attempt to discharge some of her nervous energy about the conversation.

"It's ok, Liara, I'll talk to him," Shepard decided. He had some dark thoughts about what he might say or do during this talk, but he fought them off. _Be reasonable_, he scolded himself,_ it's not like he's done anything particularly wrong—he just picked the wrong girl on which to crush. He'll be reasonable when he finds out about us._

"I can handle it, Shepard," Liara retorted, "Like I said I would. I should get used to all this, I made the decision to bond with a human, and I must accept that not all humans understand what bonding means to us as a people. After all, asari are very accepting of their sexuality—"

"Yeah, yeah, I remember." Shepard waved her off. "Please, the less I think about the Consort and Chora's Den, the better. Look, Liara, I don't know if I should apologize for him or beat him senseless, but you're absolutely right, humanity in general has a lot of funny ideas about our galactic neighbors because we just haven't been exposed to them that long. Our connection—it goes beyond sex, it's a spiritual oneness like I never could have imagined. Not a day goes by that I don't think of you," His voice gave out as he stared into her eyes. She blushed, smiling happily in return.

"I forgot what I was saying." Shepard admitted. "Um, let's just assume it was brilliant. Don't worry about his advances, just tell him 'no.' You don't have to explain it if you don't want to, but it might help your chances of making him cease and desist." A tone of concern embellished his next question. "Ok?"

"Alright," Liara stated, much more confident. "I must admit, it is hard to get used to your culture at times. It is so chaotic, and the 'rules' so... muddled. I have to say it confounds me some times that you can even navigate it so successfully yourself."

Shepard smiled a big, warm grin. "Yeah, we're pretty messed up like that." He stood up from his chair and walked over to her, leaning in to kiss her. "Don't even worry about it. Offending a human is pretty damn easy so it doesn't mean much in the long term anyway."

Liara tilted up to capture his lips with her own. "Thank you." She breathed into him. He sighed, leaning them back against the bed.

"It's what I'm here for," He answered.

- - - - -

_Normandy_ reached the destination mass relay that decelerated them back into normal space-time from the hyper velocities only mass relays were capable of creating. The ship groaned in protest, uncharacteristic for such a quiet ship. She'd been getting louder as they'd arrived at the departing relay, and Adams was concerned. Shepard was as well, and as the ship sat discharging its core charge buildup and heat buildup both, the _Bunker Hill_ came alongside.

Shepard entered the comm room flanked by his better half, who seemed a lot more at peace with herself today than she had been last night. The _Normandy_'s damage was more consequential than Adams had prognosticated, and running on damaged equipment had caused _Normandy_ to break herself further, ruling out conventional FTL travel until repairs were completed. Using the holographic comm system, he explained the situation to Captain Reed. She agreed that the probe should be taken to Therum without delay and offered her ship before he could even suggest it.

"I'll stay here and work on repairing _Normandy_." Shepard told them both. "Ship needs her commanding officer. But Liara here is the expert on theProtheans and the probe itself, or at least as close as we have to an expert. She should go with the probe."

"Certainly." Reed replied. "We've got the room for her too. How do you want to transfer the probe?"

"It's too big for the airlock even if we could get it up to deck one," Shepard noted. "How about an EVA transfer, direct from my mako bay to your's."

"I'll get my best people suited up and in the bay in fifteen minutes." Reed told him. "Does Liara have an EVA suit to fit her over there?"

"Yeah, no problem." Shepard answered for her. "Liara, I know you've never done this before, but I'll be right there with you. It's perfectly safe."

Liara put her momentary fear at the prospect to rest. "Actually I'm quite curious to experience it myself," She stated, not sure if she was being completely honest or completely dishonest. Deciding it was a mix of the two at best, she merely left it at that and waited for the ship commanders to say goodbye and close the channel.

The switch took nearly an hour to coordinate, but once the affair was finally in motion, the actual transfer took less time. Reed's crewman, or crewwoman, more precisely, was apparently very experienced and talented at EVAs.

Once the bay was repressurized aboard the_ Bunker Hill_, helmets were removed and Liara recognized the face of the female soldier who'd held her when she awoke. "Lieutenant Morgan, I did not realize it was you," She stated, surprised. "I was expecting to thank a total stranger."

"Sorry to disappoint," Morgan quipped ruefully. "But yeah, no problem. You're welcome." They shared a brief smile before picking themselves up off the floor and removing the rest of their EVA suits. Once they finished, the elevator opened to reveal none other than Damien Cross and Captain Reed. The two walked up to the probe, inspecting it.

"Cool." Damien stated, hands at his side pockets in a nonchalant pose. "What's it do again?"

"It's a probe from the last invasion," Reed answered on Liara's behalf. "Supposed to have oodles of information on the Reapers inside. You made any headway with it?"

Liara recalled the events of the evening before and secretly smiled to herself. "Not much, I'm afraid. I believe further progress will be out of our reach until we bring the probe to Therum."

"What's on Therum that's going to help?" Damien asked.

"Well, the console you found may be capable of linking to the probe somehow. It's my theory that the probe was made to escape detection by passing ships and to encode its information. A good surveillance probe would keep its secrets for its creators only."

"Makes sense," he answered. "So, Captain, we on our way back to Therum again?"

"You bet," Reed replied. "Lieutenant Morgan, Damien, Liara, you're all familiar with the ruins from last time. Given the instability of the region, I'd like to make this as quick and painless as possible, so I want you to go together when we get there. Liara, if there's anyway they or anyone else can help you complete the download faster, don't hesitate to ask. I want all of you out of there before we have another quake like last time—or worse."

"Understood." Alyssa replied, gathering her suit off the floor. "May I be dismissed to stow this gear, Ma'am?"

Reed nodded. "Yes, and good work out there, Lieutenant. Perfect job as always."

"Always?" Damien prodded quietly. No one answered. Morgan left the rest of the group for the elevator, and Ashley Reed decided to catch a ride in the same car on her way to the bridge to change course. This left some other crewmen working a rather ways off, out of earshot of the human and asari.

"Well, that had to be pretty frightening," Damien motioned with outstretched arm at the big exterior door of the mako bay.

Liara gave him a look, sizing him up, he assumed, before answering. "Damien, I _am_ grateful that you saved my life." She wanted to establish that clearly. She was in his debt. "But I think it is only fair to warn you that I already have a spiritual partner, a 'mate'."

"Oh, right, of course," He stammered. "Well, that's," he closed his eyes with mental chagrin at his choice of words, "that's ok." _ Like she needs my permission to already be involved, you ass._ "Well, uh, not that this hasn't been fun, but I've got work I'm supposed to be doing." Damien walked over to the elevator, but noticed the door was closed as it was already busy lifting the last two up a floor. "Kay, talk later!" He shouted over his shoulder a little louder than he intended, and quickly redirected himself to engineering. He didn't have any way to work from there, but staying in the room with her piercing gaze discomforted him fiercely.

"You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Huh?" Damien asked, distracted.

"I said you look like you've just seen a ghost."

Damien looked around wildly for the source of the voice before spying Gabrielle Allshouse, halfway up a ladder on one wall, holding a tool and perched next to an open panel. "What are you doing up there?" He asked, redirecting.

"I think I asked first." She answered, turning and returning to work inside the panel. Unable to simply leave, Damien decided to keep avoiding her by arguing semantics.

"Don't know where you learned English, but to ask a question you need to _ask_ a _question._ All you did was make a statement. So I asked first."

"Whatever," Gabrielle's trivial dismissal proved she was only half interested anyway. "I'm fixing a relay that blew out—old age."

"Oh," He answered. "Yeah, no, it's nothing _personal_ or anything like that, but watching that whole EVA thing kinda got to my stomach, is all." Damien noticed he overemphasized 'personal' but hoped Gabrielle would be too busy to notice.

"Uh huh." There was disbelief, but an overriding tone of disinterest in the topic. "So what are you doing here then?"

A good question, one for which he had no real answer. Damien chose to ignore it and simply shut up. There was a good chance the elevator would be ready for him by now, so he could probably just leave and be done with it. "No reason. Got to go, work and all." Damien hurried out of engineering.

- - - - -

"It's done." Damien announced. Ravi-Korian Nar Scyian sauntered over to look at his work.

"It's... exhaustive." She stated after reading the first several parts.

"Yeah, no worries. You've got enough credentials here to basically start a whole new life permanently, if you wanted." Damien got up, moving aside for Ravi to approach and sit at his console, then stretched. He gave a slight yawn but stifled it with his fist.

"You shouldn't have pressed yourself so hard." Ravi told him. "You're leaving for the surface in less than four hours. I could have waited for your return."

"This is better," Damien answered, "Gives you a chance to review it all while I'm gone, and ask me questions when I get back. Plus, I couldn't sleep."

"Why not?"

_Why not? How about being shot down at the starting gate. Seriously, you take this too hard. Just forget about her and move on. This is no big deal if you don't make it into one._ "The—ruins. Don't exactly relish the thought of getting crushed inside them, so this whole mission's got me on edge."

"I can understand that," Ravi empathized. "So is this really it? I leave the _Bunker Hill_ and we never see each other again?"

"Yeah, it's for your safety." Damien answered. "Normally I would put you in contact with a case worker, he or she'd check in with you on a semi-regular basis make sure everything's kosher. Unfortunately, I don't think that's an option what with the conspirators in my department after us, so I'm afraid I basically have to let you go and trust you'll handle your new life yourself. Just remember, follow the rules, no contact with the familiar until you go back to the migrant fleet."

"I know," Ravi replied. "Thank you for your diligent work."

"Yeah," Damien shrugged, "I'm just sorry we couldn't catch them, get us both clear of it. But I've done what I can. You follow the rules, you won't have any problems. In the history of the agency, we've never lost a witness who's followed our guidelines. And I know what they'll be looking for to try to find you, so I've built more than one or two false leads for them to chase their tails." Damien smirked at the mental image. "Study up," He ordered, leaving the mess hall.

Lieutenant Morgan and her team were still using their rack time to their best benefit, along with Liara. Damien wandered the deck, trying to release the tension building in his shoulders, pinwheeling his arms and stretching even further than before. It didn't seem to solve his issues much, but made him feel a bit better.

He wandered up to the bridge, but not knowing anyone standing at the CIC, headed fore towards the pilot. He didn't really know this woman either, but figured he should try to become more familiar with his crewmates if he wanted to assimilate himself into their little society. "Hi." He offered. "Damien Cross."

"Lieutenant Larissa Knight," came her reply.

"Working the night shift, eh?" He asked.

"Yeah, doing a favor for the other pilot." She stated. "Normally I'm first shift. In fact, I'm back on duty in—" she checked a chronometer. "only an hour. Shoot, time flies."

"Yeah," Damien answered. "I couldn't sleep. Not sure why. Maybe it's this mission on Therum."

"You were down there before, the last time, right?"

"Yup." He answered. "Nearly died sounds overly dramatic, but don't know how else to put it, surviving an earthquake."

"Heh, I'll bet." Larissa replied. "So you're a civilian, right?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"I worked in witness protection on Elysium." Cross explained. "I've never been able to see eye to eye with the military, taking lives just because some politician or Admiral says they want me to. It doesn't seem right to me, so I went into a different kind of service, where I can save lives instead of taking them."

"Sounds noble or really really pacifistic." Knight proposed. "I'm not sure which just yet."

"I didn't mean to sound patronizing," Damien apologized. "Killing just isn't for me, that's all."

"Sure." Knight seemed to be ignoring her controls, making Damien more than a little nervous with her intense gaze. "I hope some alien asks you politely if you believe in defending humanity before it guts you."

"Military is important,"

"Bet your damn ass it is." Knight interjected, turning back to work her console. "The turians at Shanxi proved that. We can't forget Shanxi. Besides, if you're only holding back because of some misguided notion about the sanctity of life, get a job on a ship. Pilots like myself, we never have need or cause to pull the trigger. Not up here. No, that's what the marines are for, and the Fire Control officers."

"I suppose not," Damien seceded in the interests of letting the topic die before it became a larger argument. "Perhaps I will do that. But, on the other hand, everybody in the Systems Alliance is going to be pushing me to be a marine, you know? Biotic marines are pretty tough in combat, I hear. If I take a job as assistant chef, well, it's a lot of untapped potential in their eyes. Part of me says if I just stay out of the military entirely I can avoid the hassle and harassment."

"Heh, who cares?" Knight asked. "Grow a pair and tell 'um to stuff themselves... with your cooking."

Despite himself, Damien chuckled at the image. "You don't care what anyone thinks about you, do you?"

"Life's too short to worry about protecting fragile ego's. You gotta live while you still can."

Damien made an indecipherable grunt as reply. "Good talking with you, Lieutenant Knight. Think I'm going to go try to catch a few winks, if I can."

"Cya," Knight replied. Damien retreated immediately for the sleeper pods on deck two. Sleep was light and flitted about quickly, so he didn't exactly feel his best as he reported for duty. However, he did his best to stifle his yawns and remain alert while anyone could be watching.

The _Bunker Hill_ rocketed into Therum's atmosphere and came to a stop hovering near the ruins. Again, the drop was done using rope rappelling, but this time Damien was allowed to give it a try on his own. It took him a while, and his landing seemed unduly hard, but he made it to the ground on his own rope. Detaching, he smiled triumphantly in Morgan's direction, who seemed mildly appreciative of his feat. He supposed that was about the most you could expect to get out of her, she seemed _so_ withdrawn.

Liara waited for the probe to be lowered by the gurney and joined it on its way down. Once safely to ground, she got off the probe and allowed Victor Stall and Elizabeth Yates to move it off the gurney and onto a four-wheeled equipment wagon. Victor took the first turn at the wheel, using a remote control function to drive it forward over the rocky surface.

The team passed the campsite on their way, the scientists working on packing their things. A few odd glances, but no one approached the newcomers to ask what they were doing back again. Instead, they continued packing up the pieces they'd accumulated over the course of the dig and getting prepared to be airlifted out.

Upon arriving at the ruins, Victor and Elizabeth we forced to carry the probe between them in order to fit in the narrower passages. They proceeded single-file, taking their time to avoid injury. It'd been a half hour when the sound of thrusters penetrated our depth into the ruins as a dull whir. Finally, we arrived at the war room and placed the probe near the console Damien had activated on accident once before. Liara got it working again, and studied its screen, glancing at the probe occasionally.

"As I thought, there's been some degradation in the subroutines. I can rebuild them, but it will extend our time down here."

"Anything we can do to help?" Alyssa asked.

"No, but trust me, it shouldn't take me too long to rebuild the damaged portions." She grew quiet as she worked, wholly neglecting the rest of us, as we shared glances and confirmed to each of us that none of the others had any idea what to do next.

Liara finished her patch in short order and the probe seemed to hum in agreement. Soon, data began spewing forth and with a triumphant shriek, she brought up her omni-tool, using it to intercept the transmissions and save them for future deciphering and use. As the download was progressing, everyone was caught off guard by the sound of footfalls descending into the ruins towards them.

Morgan held up a hand and everyone grew deathly silent. They heard some mechanical whirs once again, and some kind of auditory signal that defied quantification. Morgan ordered everyone to huddle up around her. In whispers, she explained, "Sounds like geth troopers. Yates, Stall, you're with me. We're going to head them off while they're bottlenecked in the tightest passages, try to thin them out. Damien, you stay here, protect Liara, and keep your eyes and ears open!"

Damien gulped down with some difficulty whatever had tried to come back up his esophagus. Hesitantly, he reached down, activating the combat armor's kinetic barriers. He hadn't received a weapon nor training for one, so he had only his biotics to assist him. Recalling the dampening field at his Elysium apartment, he briefly wondered if that would be sufficient.

Yates pushed her pistol into his hands, he looked down at it and took it gratefully. With a flash, the three marines quietly left the war room, heading up the way they'd come only a short time before. Damien moved to the doorway and cautiously peered around, but saw nothing, just an empty antechamber.

Liara spoke quietly. "I am amazed the geth have returned to Therum. They nearly captured me here once prior, when they came under Saren's behest."

"What do you know about them?" Damien whispered back.

"They are synthetic life forms. True artificial intelligence. They hate organic life and seek to isolate themselves from creatures such as ourselves. They do not usually attack without provocation. We had clearly defined borders for nearly 300 years, before Saren convinced them to attempt an attack on the Citadel."

Suddenly a shout came from far away, and the entire area erupted into a cacophony of loud crashes as weapons fire began to be exchanged. The sound seemed to drive Damien deaf, but no matter how close he was driven to that point, he could still hear the gunfire. There was a lot of automatic fire—assault rifles, probably. He heard the distinct rapport of a weapon that fired a lot slower—potentially something like a shotgun. He remembered Elizabeth had one in her hands when she gave him her pistol.

He looked down and quickly disengaged the safety, trying to breathe evenly, control his raging adrenal response. It seemed a losing battle as he shakily pointed it in the general location from which geth might soon be emerging. After a while, the firefight seemed to die down, and Damien took a deep breath in appreciation. Suddenly the ground shook all around him and he looked wildly to Liara—she also recognized the experience and seemed equally concerned. "How long?" He asked. Just that quickly, however, the ground shudders stopped again.

"It's done, let's go!" Liara answered. Damien was ever so thankful to hear that, he turned back to the antechamber—

Everything that followed seemed like slow motion. He spotted movement, something white and shiny, not anything like the armor color of Morgan's squad. In a panicked knee-jerk response, he pushed back with his feet, leaning backwards, away from the opening that gave the geth shock trooper a straight line of sight on him. He felt something hit him full-force in his gut, and looked down as he fell backwards, expecting to see his torso ripped a bloody hole. Instead, he saw the kinetic barriers alight, defending him. As he fell back, Liara also dove away from the doorway, both of them hitting the ground within a second of each other. Damien scrambled back to his feet, recovering his position just to one side of the doorway and carefully peaked around the corner, spying the trooper standing mostly in plain view. The trooper quickly brought up his weapon again, but Damien pulled back before the trooper could hit him. As Damien waited for his automatic weapon to stop peppering the doorway with bullets, he considered the fact that his small pistol was no match for a full-auto assault rifle when it came to suppressing fire. _Biotics, then, will have to save us, because this geth has us effectively trapped in here._


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Aboard the _Bunker Hill_, all combat systems were brought to full readiness, but the swarm of geth fighters effectively kept the GARDIAN systems busy, forcing the ship to stay away from the Therum atmosphere. Two troop transports made it past the _Hill_ and into the atmosphere, depositing troops at the campsite, throwing the researchers and scientists into a frenzied panic. Those unable to escape by running in the first few minutes were then quickly wiped out by the geth troops, who then began heading for the ruins.

Ashley Reed studied the tactical view hologram, showing the _Bunker Hill_ severely outnumbered by small fighter craft. They attempted to attack the ship with slow, heavy torpedoes to break past the kinetic barriers, but frigates were built with small ship interception in mind, and she effectively stopped all torpedoes from reaching the shields as well as damaging many of the geth's bomber/fighters.

"Bring up the main cannon." Reed commanded. "Gunnery, lock onto that cruiser. Helm, keep us at close range so they can't lock on with their main cannon. Continue evasive."

Corman Wells was no stranger to spaceborne combat. His captain had been in a few skirmishes, but never faced a fleet like this. The geth had brought a carrier with countless fighters aboard, along with a single, well-endowed cruiser. As fleets went, this one was hardly the largest he'd engaged, but it nicely countered the strengths of the _Bunker Hill_ frigate. The cruiser was somewhat effective with its GARDIAN arrays at damaging frigates, and the fighters would be the death sentence if the geth could only have managed to overcome the ship's own GARDIAN point-defense system. A few fighters kept up the pressure, but it was obvious at this point to Commander Wells that the geth had probably overextended themselves trying to sneak into the Artemis Tau Cluster, and paid for that mistake in not bringing enough firepower to rule the day. With enough tactical maneuvering and careful shooting, Wells estimated the _Bunker Hill_ would be able to wear down the cruiser and heavily damage it before the geth's GARDIAN systems could poke any serious holes in the ship's ablative armor. Of course, avoiding the point-defense systems on the carrier would be key, as the added damage from that many GARDIAN batteries would eventually turn the tide of the battle into the geth's favor.

He had no need to tell the captain any of this; it was obvious she was taking the same approach with which he'd come up. The _Bunker Hill_ hologram snaked back and forth under Lieutenant Knight's hands, and the mass accelerator cannon was fired several times each time they did a run at the cruiser. The kinetic barriers of the cruiser held effectively, owing their strength to the cruiser's superior size and the frigate's inability to accelerate rounds to the same effective speeds of larger ships like the cruiser.

Maneuverability played a key role in keeping the _Bunker Hill_ mostly undamaged but for the inescapable laser fire. The fighters had yet to attempt another run at the frigate, apparently instead preferring to mount an attack on the ruins themselves. Sensor resolution was not high enough for anyone to know why they were down there in the atmosphere, but Corman knew the _Hill_ needed to wipe them out before they could kill the shore party below.

"Captain, we're just not powerful enough to wear this cruiser down in time." Wells objected to her current strategy. "I think we should head for the planet's surface and wipe out the fighters while they're away from GARDIAN assistance, before they can attack the colony or any of our people down there."

Reed's look was grim, but she relented. "Helm, take us into the atmosphere, do your best to keep us from taking shots from that cruiser. Set a course for the ruins."

- - - - -

Fortunately, the geth had no way to know Damien was a biotic human. Not yet, anyway. He peered out again, bringing up his hand and pulling back like he was about to punch his enemy, even from this range. He pushed his closed fist forward and his body grew instantly alight with the purple nuance of biotic energy. A force issued forth, quickly punching the geth trooper before he could even react to what he was seeing. It threw him back into a wall, causing him to stagger and fall to his knees. Quickly, Damien came out from behind my cover, firing the pistol as fast as he could pull the trigger. Again and again he fired, the geth desperately trying to get back on his feet while his kinetic barriers still shielded him. Just as he got back up, bringing his weapon to bear, Damien saw his enemy's shield fizzle out and a bullet rip into his skin. He jerked in response to the hit and fell back to his knees. The pistol Damien wielded overheated then, setting off an alarm so loud it scared him the second half of the way to death. Damien watched the geth twitch, but ultimately stop moving. Liara came around the corner, her own biotic corona illustrating her desire to enter the fight, but it was already done. The duo froze, hearing that distinct sound of more troopers talking, and marching down towards them. Damien looked panicked in Liara's direction.

"There's an alternative escape exit we dug in another section of the ruins," Liara explained, "If we hurry, we can reach the other path before the geth cut us off, and make a run for the surface."

"You lead, I'll follow and cover us." Damien answered. He wasn't sure how that would work with a small pistol fighting off an army of geth with assault weapons, but there wasn't time to debate the point. Liara sprinted up the way they'd come down, forcing Damien into a full breakneck run to keep up. Suddenly, she turned and raced down another corridor. As Damien approached, he recognized it from when they'd been working in the ruins before. He'd never seen where this path went, but he'd gone past it many times on his way to the antechamber. He too turned and raced down this secondary path, but not before spying geth coming down, cutting off the normal route to the surface. They were almost right on top of Damien and Liara, but seemed surprised to see Damien alive. Their hesitation to act gave Damien and Liara slight lead time, allowing them to open up more distance before the geth could scramble down to the intersection and run after them. A few shots were fired at their retreating forms, but none seemed to register a strike on Damien's kinetic barriers.

Briefly, Damien considered the fact that he was trying to out-run synthetic life forms that probably had a better muscle-to-weight ratio than any human. He was sorely tempted to turn around and see for himself, but he was having a hard enough time just keeping Liara in view. Once she slowed to catch her breath, Damien caught up to her and nearly stopped to take a breather. He turned around and saw the geth closing, weapon's fire once again ignited. Damien pushed Liara down behind a rock and dove behind it as well, biotics flaring in the process.

Damien looked up and gave a quick motion with one hand, palm raised to the sky and lifted higher. A back geth trooper found himself weightless, rising several meters into the air. Damien took cover as the automatic weapons assaulted his position, but the one trooper lifted into the air was so high now that Damien could see and shoot him, even from down behind the rock. Using this one-time chance to attack without reprisal, he fired a slew of rounds into the geth trooper. The recoil was beginning to actually hurt and Damien realized even in the firing halls on Elysium he'd never fired a sidearm so much in such a short amount of time, if in any one session ever.

The geth was dead by the time the lift wore off and his body plummeted back to ground. Damien looked up just barely over the rock, and spied another geth shock trooper advancing on them, while his buddies laid down protective covering fire. The shock trooper deployed a hexagonal, stand-alone kinetic barrier and hid behind it. Liara risked a glance and spied it as well.

To Damien, she announced over the noise of the gunfire, "They're going to overrun us in seconds! We both need to create a singularity! You get the closest trooper I'll get his friends!"

Damien complied and the two of them broke from cover at the same time, each bringing up a hand and calling forth an unstable singularity. Liara's struck home first, and all three geth began to fly wildly back and forth, away from the singularity, then back to it, almost as if they were in a tight orbit. Damien's singularity was placed against the wall nearby to the geth's position, its gravity actually pulling him away from his hexagonal cover. As the bodies flew around, Damien fired wildly into the mix of bodies, unsure if he was hitting anything but air. Liara pulled on his arm and the two of them resumed their retreat, running full tilt once again.

They didn't stop for several minutes but eventually Damien's stamina gave out, forcing him to jog and then walk, trying to catch is breath, but every one as elusive as the last. Liara stopped, turned around, and called out encouragement, but Damien couldn't hear it over the pumping of blood in his ears. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had to work his body this hard for his job. Liara ran back to his side, grabbing his right arm, and pulling him forward. Damien resisted automatically, barely managing "Rest!" with the air he had in his lungs.

"We cannot rest, the geth will catch up to us again very soon. It's not too far, only another half a kilometer to the path that leads to the surface!"

"Kilo—" he puffed, instantly dreading the future exertion more than he had been already.

"The ruins are quite large, and this area is quite open with few places for us to hide behind. If you want to live we must keep going!"

"The hell." Damien replied, shooting Liara a very dirty look. He turned back to the last doorway they'd come through and spied a large rock formation nearby. His breath was now back, for the most part, and he took a deep breath before calling on his biotics to dislodge the large rock fragments. He held out a hand that immediately began to shake with the exertion he was pouring into his biotic abilities, but the rocks seemed firmly attached to the wall. With an incomprehensible yell, Damien put everything he had into the effort. Liara noticed the target of his actions and her own biotics joined his. Moments later, a roaring sound of collapsing rocks reached their ears as the formation broke away from the wall, tumbled down and landed in front of the doorway. With Liara's help, the rocks were positioned firmly against the doorway, piled up high enough so not even a sliver of the doorway could be seen any longer.

Damien collapsed, passing out momentarily. When he awoke, Liara was holding him, gently lowering him to the ground. Damien let out a moan and rolled on his side once on the ground. His head was pounding with blood flowing through his veins. He felt almost as if his body were on fire, but he couldn't tell why.

Liara helped hold him on his side while he fought the effects of overextending himself. It took several minutes before he could handle lying on his side by himself. A few minutes after that, he turned and stood on all fours, the pistol lying near his right hand while he held himself here, testing that he could indeed gain further altitude without losing the blood flow to his brain. With Liara's arms around his torso, the two managed to stand up together. Liara held him steady until he nodded affirmative and moved away slowly. She picked up the pistol as well, carrying it herself.

"You should not have attempted that on your own," She chastised. "I've seen what happens when biotics overextend themselves. Some simply cannot recover without medical intervention."

"Yeah, glad that's not me." Damien answered, walking slowly down the corridor, dragging his feet. "Oh, my head," Damien brought up his fists to either temple using the bottom halves of his palms to push on his head as if to force the pain out. "This sucks."

"The pain will pass." Liara answered, moving alongside him, keeping his pace, no longer attempting to force him to move faster. A small victory for him, Damien considered ruefully as he experienced the pain that bought him this reprieve.

An explosion came from up ahead. Liara and Damien exchanged confused glances, and she quickly ran ahead to scout out what had happened. When Damien came up to where she stood, she pointed up a pathway that seemed to head up at a modest slope. Halfway up the path there was a massive pile of rubble, cutting off access to the rest of the path. "That was my escape plan," Liara explained. "I believe there were in fact geth in this tunnel when it collapsed." She pointed at what looked like a synthetic's arm, covered in rock, sand, and dust. A very human moan was heard up ahead, and the two quickly pursued the source. They found Victor Stall and Alyssa Morgan, both injured with bullet wounds, lying behind some rocks that provided cover from the geth's position in the secondary surface access tunnel.

"What happened?" Damien asked, looking worriedly between the two injured marines.

Victor looked to Alyssa, despondent. "Elizabeth tried to pull them off of us. She ran up that tunnel and they followed. Not a moment later, we heard a grenade go off."

"The explosion caused a cave-in." Liara extrapolated. "The geth were caught in it and killed. She saved all our lives."

"Is she alright?" Alyssa asked in her most serious and most concerned tone. To Damien, it sounded about as emotional as he'd ever heard her voice. Liara shook her head sadly.

"The cave-in was extensive, she was likely caught in it herself. I saw no sign of her through all that rubble."

A solitary tear ran down Alyssa's dirt-covered cheek. She cut off her crying into a single, stunted, inarticulate sound before simply burying her face in her arm. A few moments later, she emerged, no longer allowing herself to show the slightest emotion. "Alright." She said, then grew quiet. Finally, she tried again, "Alright, we need to get out of here. There's a lot more geth where they came from."

"We know." Damien told her. "We caused a cave-in of our own back there, the doorway they need to use to get to us is blocked by a whole pile of very heavy rocks."

"Good, but we can't stay here forever waiting for rescue," Morgan replied. "There's no way of knowing if the _Bunker Hill_ can even send someone after us. This whole planet may have been invaded for all we know, and if it has, then it's up to us to avoid capture."

Liara did not agree. "I believe they merely came here for the probe, Lieutenant Morgan." She explained, "They knew right where we were and attacked us quickly, using surprise to overwhelm us. Somehow they must know what we are doing here and wish to stop us."

"They have an unnatural interest in Prothean data." Damien recalled from the extranet reports following the wake of their attack on Eden Prime.

"What's worse, they seem to have a pretty good handle of anything going on in the Traverse." Alyssa stated. "Seems they've got tight patrols."

"It appears to be so. They are still waiting for the full reprisal of the Citadel races in the aftermath of their failed attack." Liara noted. "They probably patrol all Traverse systems close enough to the Veil to be a threat to them. If they watched the _Normandy_ they may have seen our recovery of the Prothean probe, and perhaps followed us here."

"Great," Damien replied. "So how does that help us get out of here?"

"Of course, I'm sorry, we need to concentrate on the task immediately before us." Liara amended. "There's a smaller escape path another two kilometers down this direction. It's barely large enough for a person to crawl through. In fact, some areas may be too tight for your armor." She eyed each of their suits briefly. "But that is our only remaining option. I think we should try."

"Let's go," Morgan ordered, motioning for someone to assist her in standing up. Damien came to her side, careful to avoid touching or aggravating her wound. Liara helped Victor stand. The four left, two using the other two for support as they walked.

"Have you tried to contact the ship?" Damien asked quietly while helping Alyssa walk with her left leg having been shot.

"Yeah," Morgan replied coolly. "No answer. That's when I had to order a retreat down this corridor. Was hoping to cut them down and make our way back to you, but you can't believe how badly we were outnumbered. I'm amazed we're still alive."

"I'm glad you're alright," Damien offered his heartfelt response. "Let's just focus on getting out of here."

"Get no argument from me," Alyssa answered. "I think the geth may be trapped down here with us."

"What?" he asked, surprised. "Why? How? They can just go up the way they first came in, the main entrance and closest to the campsite."

"We had a major tremor during our engagement." Alyssa answered. "I heard a rockslide but I couldn't pinpoint which direction it came from. If it came from the main tunnel to the surface, then that means those geth are pinned between two rockslides underground."

"Doesn't sound like a bad thing," Damien answered.

"It isn't, except that this means they're more likely to come our way. It might take them a while to get out from behind the rocks, but once they do they'll be hot on our trail again. If their route to the surface is already cut off, there's no reason to attempt to go immediately back to the surface when coming this way increases their chances of finding us."

Under his breath, Damien added, "Always the optimist," but walking so closely together easily allowed an ever-increasingly-clear-headed Alyssa to overhear that.

"Civvy, you'd be a pessimist too if you'd been through what I've lived through."

"I guess I'll just have to take your word for that, Lieutenant." Damien replied, curious but realizing now was probably not the time to ask. "You doing ok?"

"Yeah, let's go a little faster, eh? I want to get out of here before the geth even break through."

"Whatever you say, Lieutenant."

Damien assisted Alyssa all the way to Liara's escape tunnel. As she stated, it was narrow, just large enough for one person crawling on their belly. Damien carefully placed his charge sitting on a rock and walked up to the narrow passageway. Sizing it up and almost starting to climb up it, he decided, "I think we can make with _with_ our armors on. It's better than you thought, Liara."

"Very well," Liara answered. "But how will they get up there injured?"

"You underestimate marines," Victor Stall warned her, "That's a bad habit to get into. We'll make it. One of you goes first, then the Lieutenant, myself, and the other one brings up the rear. Helping hands on either side if we need it. Sound good, LT?"

"All except for the crawling part, yeah. Let's just get this done."

"Alright. Damien you want to go first?"

"Yeah, I'll peak my head out and see what's out there to shoot it off." Damien quipped, smiling.

"Good man." Stall complimented. "Let's do this."

Damien started crawling up the passageway slowly so as to not dislodge too much sand and debris to choke the others behind him. After he got a good ten foot into the passage, Liara helped Alyssa into the passageway. At first there was a pained hiss and Alyssa froze only a foot or two inside. Then, with a loud moan she pulled herself into the passageway entirely and slowly began ascending, even slower than Damien.

Stall entered a few feet behind his commanding officer, telling Liara to follow behind quickly. She did, and soon all four were in various stages of completing the journey through rock and dirt. Damien reached the bright end of the tunnel, his eyes watering in the bright light. He brought up a hand to shield his eyes and waited for them to adjust better. Soon the area wasn't too bright to look at and he could look around. The hole was rather nondescript, certainly not for its important purpose, and there was no one in eyesight. Damien carefully pushed himself out completely and took a deep breath, landing on his back and sighing happily. Things seemed to be going a lot better now than they had been previously.

Within a few minutes the others popped their heads into the sun. Damien helped each one clamor out and onto the surface once again. Soon as everyone was up, Alyssa decided their next course of action should be to find a way to contact the ship. She tried the radio once again, briefly.

"_Bunker Hill_ this is shore party, come in _Bunker Hill_."

Nothing but static returned their hail. Damien blanched, not sure what to make of the silence, but feeling a sense of foreboding. "They're ok, right?"

"There's no way to know," Morgan snapped. "Stall, where's the human settlement?"

"West of here, across a river of molten lava." He answered, remembering back to his briefing on the planet. "Long ways, but I can't remember exactly how far."

Liara looked up at the bright, faintly blue sky. "With the high heat of this planet, our protective gear can protect us, but it's going to make finding water in liquid form impossible. We need an airlift out of here, we'll be dead if we try for the settlement on foot."

"Shit." Alyssa replied. "If we broadcast for help on general channels we'll be tracked by any geth still in the area."

"Set up a trap." Damien cut in. "If they'll trace it to us, let's set it up somewhere where _we_ have the advantage. If help comes, good, if the geth come, we'll be ready, at least."

Morgan weighed her options. _Good chance the geth overwhelm us. Two biotics are strong, but one of them's not even a marine, no weapons or training... And Liara's got nothing for armor, so I have to bunker her in good cover and hope for the best. Then again, if I don't do anything, we're quite obviously going to die on the surface from dehydration. Take my chances with the geth, or hope by some miracle the _Bunker Hill_ is coming for us even if they aren't in contact with us anymore. No reason to scare or discourage them, but I don't think the ship's coming._

_Ok, so where do we set up this trap..._ "Stall, isn't there a valley near here, two ways in or out on opposite sides, I remember the thing looked almost like an asteroid strike?

"Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Five klicks from the campsite due south."

"So if we can draw the geth through the nearby entrance, bottleneck 'um, and thin them out, we can conceivably pull back out of the valley through the other way."

"Yeah, that could work LT." Victor agreed. "But we're a little short on an army here."

"Let's hope the geth are equally thin on landing troops. I mean, what could they have brought here to the Tau cluster without getting spotted? Nothing big, I'd think."

"This way," Victor stated, pointing with a finger. "Let's give 'um some payback."

"Oorah." Victor and Alyssa both shouted the traditional marine interjection in sync. Damien gave Liara a look in response, but she couldn't decide what he meant. Finally he gave up and the four set out for the valley.

- - - - -

"Sitrep!" Reed ordered, picking herself off the floor.

"I think we've taken a direct hit," Wells responded. "But all the fighters are dead, the sky's clear."

"Helm, can you get us out of here, back into space?"

"I'm trying," Knight replied tersely. "Controls are sluggish we must've taken a serious hit."

"Lucky SOB's." Reed swore to herself. _That cruiser may have just landed the stunning blow that wins them total control of orbit._ "Get us out of here before they get lucky twice." She ordered.

The _Bunker Hill_ swung wildly back and forth in the atmosphere, gaining altitude slowly but eventually making it back into orbit distances, beyond the atmosphere. The cruiser continued to shoot and miss while Knight piloted, closing range to further increase the odds that the _Bunker Hill_ wouldn't take another mass accelerator round to the hull.

Engineering came over the comm with a damage report. "Captain, FTL is offline, as are extra-ship comms. We've got no way to contact anyone on the surface or call for backup. Hull is damaged but integrity is holding, all sections are still appropriately pressurized."

"What about my engines?" Knight cut in, snarling. "She feels like she became a cruiser overnight."

"If I had to guess, reduced thruster power due to damage. Full rerouting around the damaged sections should restore full power. I'll work with the VI and try to figure out how bad it is."

"Fix our engines," Ashley ordered. "CIC out."

Gabrielle Allshouse quickly ordered her engineers into action once again before heading to a flat screen panel built into one wall of engineering. She tapped it, bringing up the VI's systems. "VI, we have reduced thruster output but the thrusters were not damaged. Can you localize where we're losing our power?"

A female avatar listened intently, looking Gabrielle directly in the eyes and nodding. Gabrielle personally wasn't a fan of VI's and society's quest to make them more and more human. She was quite happy when she'd learned the _Bunker Hill_ didn't force her to work with a holographic avatar. As the VI worked, she (or _it_) looked faraway over Gabrielle's shoulder, like a person in a daydream. A few moments later, the VI looked directly at her once again. "Damage report compiled. There is damage to several circuits above deck one; all have been completely disabled. Warning; I detect current pathing to the outer hull. Electrical buildup currently measured at 1.9876 times ten to the sixth power megajoules. Rate of buildup is consistently observed at 9.875 times ten to the third power megajoules per second."

"Find the source of the short and disable that circuit immediately." Gabrielle ordered. The VI nodded and seconds later disabled the circuit panel leaking electrical energy to the hull.

"Circuit cut. Outer hull maintains a charge of 2.0083 times ten to the sixth power megajoules."

"VI, give me a list of all nonfunctional circuits including the one you just disabled."

"List complied." The VI's avatar shrunk and moved to the left hand side of the display panel while a list popped up on the right. Gabrielle called her crew together to begin handing out circuit bypass assignments.

On the bridge, Reed watched their near-futile effort to damage the cruiser on their own, feeling her frustration building up within her. _How did they know where to find us? Dammit how could I have let them follow us here!? And what do I do now?_

Larissa Knight felt the fatigue settling in on her. Adrenal response was valuable, but it was a limited resource, and now she had none left. She kept the _Bunker Hill_ clear of anything outright dangerous, but with the carrier moving to shorter range to its cruiser companion, she realized the geth must be planning on wearing her ship down with GARDIAN fire, or a rapid deployment of another fighter squadron, refueled and repaired.

Cormon Wells noticed this as well, warning, "Captain I think the carrier's intending on helping out its escort. They are moving into GARDIAN range and may have another wave of fighters ready to deploy."

"So they can cut us to pieces while leaving themselves exposed as short a time as possible," Reed surmised. "Alright, helm, break off attack runs and begin medium range evasive maneuvers."

"We have a good chance of taking a glancing blow at medium range, Captain." Knight warned.

"If we let the fighters swarm us instantly it's guaranteed game over." Reed shot back. "Do your best, Lieutenant. What's our heat buildup?"

Corman studied the current complete heat management report the _Bunker Hill_ VI compiled from all of the individual heat management stations. "Fifty-six percent of maximum. GARDIAN specifically is still showing eighty-three percent. If we have to fight off another wave, we might start to lose GARDIAN crystals once the heat builds to ninety-five percent."

"Dammit." Ashley punched her railing in frustration with her realization, "We're outmatched." She opened up the engineering room comm again. "Allshouse, tell me you can get FTL or the extra-ship comms back online?"

There was no answer at first, then a hesitant, "Captain, I've got no antenna left on the outer hull. We're going to need an EVA to install a new one, there's just no other way around it. As for FTL, the VI can't tell me why it's offline, yet. No ETA on fixing it."

Corman Wells snapped his fingers. "Wait, engineering, can you set up the transmitter inside the comm room and connect it to power?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Sir. The transmitter is powerful enough to irradiate all of us in seconds if we install it inside the living space of the ship."

"But what if I got you within ten klicks of the nearest buoy? Can you link us into the network using a low-powered signal?"

Wheels clicked and turned in Gabrielle's mind. "It'll take some jury-rigging to control the power output but I can do that. Just don't make a long call and keep people well away from the transmitter proper."

"Get it done, Chief." Corman ordered. "Captain, I recommend we set course for a comm buoy and link us into the network from close range. We can call for reinforcements and play cat-and-mouse with this geth fleet all we want until they arrive."

Ashley nodded. "The geth are jamming Therum's radio transmissions, however. We should go a bit further out of our way and get a beacon mostly out of their jamming range."

"Understood, Captain." Wells acknowledged. "Mrs. Knight, get us out of here, full burn."

As he spoke, he saw a ship leaving the geth carrier. It looked like another geth dropship heading for the surface. With a mournful look at Therum's surface, he privately wondered what had happened to the shore party.

- - - - -


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Alyssa Morgan was patched up as best as she could be without real medigel application. That oversight alone made her despondent about the success of this operation. She'd been through a lot of things in her life, and been shot more than once, and it was a miracle that to this day she had minimal scarring from these awful injuries. Now, she had no miracle packs on hand to treat her bullet wound, the only consoling factor being that the bullet had passed straight through, so the bullet itself wasn't rattling around inside of her, causing further damage and spreading infection.

Stall's wound was not as cut and dry, and being the only one left with field medical experience she trusted, she had to use a small first aid kit to remove the bullet and place the wound in gauss. It took some doing, but when she was finished she thought she had collected all pieces that were large enough for her to see and remove. Stall's wound looked very angry and was already infected far worse than hers. She guessed without proper medical treatment he'd have a day or two, tops. With medigel, she could extend that. Ultimately, the infection always won unless it was eradicated with drugs and antibiotics.

Damien and Liara kept guard until Alyssa could finish her task. Once completed, the four broke up and took positions apart from each other, each covered by rock formations from any geth who entered via the front door. Damien was the lowest of the four, almost the same ground level as the entrance, but a few feet higher. He crouched behind a huge rock that looked like it would hide him well when he needed it.

The transmitter was activated, and ran for a good fifteen minutes before any activity reached them. Damien tensed, staring where the disturbance came from. He looked nervously and spied Liara and Alyssa, but Victor was out of his line of sight. They seemed to have seen it as well, and everyone tensed, ready to fight.

Bursting past large tree trunks came two geth recon drones with assault rifle turrets built right into their hovering forms. Alyssa gave a loud shout to spur everyone into action. Damien watched as Alyssa expertly downed one of them with a sniper rifle shot. Victor's assault rifle lit up the kinetic barriers on the other one, and Liara used her omni-tool to create a mine meant to combat shielding. She launched it and the last recon drone was covered in a ball of white-hot light. Moments later Victor's rifle fire ripped up the small hover robot, causing it to crash and explode into hundreds of smaller pieces.

Geth shock troopers ran in next, quickly setting up hexagonal shield barriers while they tried to draw fire and spot the marines' locations. Unfortunately, the shields did little to protect them from gravity, as Damien sent out a singularity near their positions, catching all of them in one fell swoop. As they flew around helplessly, Liara, Victor, and Alyssa opened up with their weapons. Before they could finish off the helpless geth, more troopers emerged, obviously intent on making a firm push forward before the marines could whittle down on their numbers.

Damien opened up with everything his biotics had. He sent one squad into the sky with a firm lift guaranteed to damage them when it wore off and they fell back to earth. Liara set up a singularity of her own that mercilessly caught another group of troopers, flinging them back and forth, making them into living pinballs as they bounced off flora, fauna, and ground alike.

The geth refused to give up so easily, quickly spying Damien as he used his biotics and concentrating the bulk of their fire on keeping him suppressed. Damien waited behind cover, hoping and praying that he would survive, and that Liara could incapacitate a few more of them, allow him a chance to help.

The fighting continued unabated for several long minutes, but ultimately the geth couldn't establish a hold in the valley without being mercilessly caught up in some form of biotic attack from Liara. The majority of the suppressing fire switched to her, and Damien relied on his armor's kinetic barriers for all they were worth, popping up and using his own biotics before ducking down to allow them to recharge.

A loud commotion came from out of sight, behind the geth's front lines. Moments later, a four-legged geth colossus appeared on the scene, wasting no time using its anti-vehicle weaponry to obliterate the rock Damien was hiding behind. Pieces of rock and dirt flew into the air, falling back to the ground and pelting Damien in the process. The rock's face was holed out, but the shot failed to completely destroy Damien's cover. In a panicked reflex, Damien held his arm over his head and neck until the debris stopped raining down on him. He heard a geth trooper's odd mechanical speech as it rounded the rock with its weapon ready. Before he could respond, the trooper fired at point-blank range, driving him backwards into a supine position. With a thud, he hit the ground, but even as he did, he trust out his closed fist at the trooper, who found itself receiving a nasty hit from a biotic force, throwing it back into a nearby young sapling, crushing it. Damien did it again, and the trooper flew mere inches above the ground until it landed in a heap even further away. Standing up, Damien felt similar precursors to when he'd overextended himself before—and realized he needed to slow down on his biotic use before he incapacitated himself.

The trooper didn't move, a spike-like tree branch having broken straight through its flashlight eye. The colossus took another high-powered shot at Damien's cover, which he was still hid behind for the most part. The rest of his rocky cover exploded to his right, most of the debris passing his slim profile, but a few pieces hitting his kinetic barriers, depleting them. Damien fell on his left side, rolling into a small gully, and desperately tried to regain his footing before he was killed.

He rose to his feet facing the geth line. The geth's fire discipline had improved drastically now that both biotics were too busy staying alive to use their offensive powers. He saw the troops engaging Morgan and Liara, but the colossus seemed to have an eye only for him. He could tell it was about to fire at him again, and in a panic, Damien called out a singularity right atop the colossus's head. The colossus was too heavy to be budged by the attack, but its compatriots were not. Several geth were pulled up into the singularity, smacking directly into the colossus's head like a full body slap, knocking its aim several times. Damien used his chance to turn, running for cover behind a thick tree. There were several tightly packed together, allowing him the opportunity to ditch covering behind one for another for when the colossus managed to aim accurately again without being smacked about.

Liara risked exposing herself momentarily to see the troops smashing back and forth around the head of the large geth and she quickly deployed a biotic lift directly at the colossus. She watched as the colossus lost its tenuous hold on the earth and free floated while the singularity wore off completely, the troops landing in heaps nearby. She took aim and quickly worked over the disoriented troops with her pistol. She heard a few sniper shots from Alyssa and saw geth struggling back to their feet slump back to the ground. Victor's assault rifle fired long bursts directly into the colossus' barriers, wearing it down while it was floating and unable to aim and return fire.

The colossus slammed back into the ground as the biotic effect wore off, crushing an unfortunate geth underneath. It lurched back up on its four feet, standing tall and powerful once more, and firing a retaliatory shot at Liara, who took cover before it could decimate her position. Damien, having seen the lift affect the colossus, began flaring his biotic corona, building up as much strength into this lift as he could. When at last he felt he'd placed everything into this one shot, he came out from behind his tree, lifting a palm skyward with his eyes fixed directly on the colossus. Once again, the geth was lifted several meters into the air, losing the ability to control its limbs and aim. A darkness washed over Damien's vision and he could feel the disorientation settling in. He stumbled blindly, groping for the other tree that was supposed to hide him. He couldn't seem to reach it until suddenly he felt the rough bark scrape his hands. With relief, Damien nearly hugged the tree, attempting to get behind it, then settled down in a heap, passing out.

When he came back, the familiar burn filled his whole body, and blood rushed through his ears to drive out all other sound. He blinked several times before his eyes started working again, and judged his surroundings. He was still behind the tree, curled up into a ball, and feeling miserable. He groaned, bemoaning his very existence, and tried not to think about how much it hurt. It took some time, longer than before, until the fires subsided and he started to feel better. His hearing returned as well, the blood not pumping as loudly as it had previously, and he realized that with the absence of the rushing blood, he heard nothing at all. _The fight is over?_ Damien wondered. He attempted to stand up and that's when the pain returned, but far more focused this time. Coughing uncontrollably, he fell back down against the tree and held his left side with his hands, using pressure to attempt to ward off the pain. His hands felt wet, especially the one directly against his side, so he carefully let up on the pressure and looked at his right palm. A cheery, bright red liquid coated his palm, and with a sudden coldness that went to his very bones, he realized he'd been shot. He looked at the wound, but other than seeing that it seemed quite serious, he couldn't tell much about it. He felt around his back with his left hand, still unbloodied, and couldn't feel anything out of order. When he looked at that palm, it was mostly clear of blood.

_The bullet must still be inside!_ Damien realized. "Help," He called out. "Help!" _Who's going to answer? The geth or the team?_ Worried, Damien rolled around until he was supporting himself on two knees and his left hand. His right returned to attempting to stem the bleeding of his wound. He looked up and around, but saw no movement.

Damien's suit radio squawked. "Shut up Civvy, there may be more geth coming! What's the matter with you!?" The anger in the voice made him drop his jaw in shock and surprise.

He managed to get his voice working again, gravelly and hoarse. "I've been—shot." He stated, trying not to clench his teeth too hard. The pain was inscrutable.

"How bad is your injury?" Liara's voice, he recognized.

"Not—good." He heaved out a cry of agony as he pushed himself back onto his feet, still hunched over quite a bit. Blood seeped between his fingers and landed on the small rocks beside his feet, coloring them with speckles of red.

His armor chirped, warning him that he was still consuming large amounts of energy with the combat mode engaged. He ignored its trivial plea.

"I will go to him!" Liara stated over the radio.

"Negative, hold position, we may have more incoming. Stall, can you get eyes on Damien?"

"Not from here, no. Where is he? Where did that rock go? The one you had him covered behind?"

"Colossus." Alyssa explained. "Where are you, Damien?"

"I followed the gully behind the rock back to some big, thick trees. I'm next to them now."

"Ok, you need to stem the bleeding, can you do that?"

"LT, movement, straight ahead." Victor interrupted.

"I don't know—" Damien objected, feeling tired.

"Dammit, I need to know if you can do it, Civvy! We got no time for this!"

Before another word could be voiced, assault rifle fire opened up, followed quickly by pistol and sniper rifle fire. Round two was beginning, and Damien was helpless to assist, too far back to see the geth and injured.

With a grimace, Damien sat down, or more accurately fell, flat on his butt. Using his left hand, he attempted to pull at the fabric of his pant leg, hoping to rip it. Instead, all he did was unbalance himself, and fall over on his left side with a grunt. His face kissed the ground hard and it was all he could do not to cry out again and alert the geth to his position. With a low, quiet moan, Damien decided to stop moving and just rest. Rest would get him the energy he needed to act. It wouldn't take too long—

- - - - -

Before the _Bunker Hill_ could return and reconnoiter the geth ships, both of them pulled away from Therum and jumped into FTL, heading for the relay that eventually lead in the direction of the Perseus Veil. Wasting no time, Captain Reed ordered all compromised sections of the hull compartmentalized and took the _Hill_ into Therum's atmosphere, intending to head for the ruins to search for the shore party. Corman Wells was the first to spot the transmitter in a nearby valley, and the ship course was changed accordingly during their descent.

As the ship hovered, additional teams rappelled to the ground and invaded the valley. Alyssa Morgan, utterly amazed by the sight, could scarcely say a single coherent word as she and her team gathered together at the base of the valley.

One helmeted marine asked about Elizabeth. Morgan recalled the awful sound of the grenade and the cave-in, and shuttered, unable to answer him.

Stall, standing nearby, filled in for her. "We lost her,"

They each shared a grim look as they took stock of the injuries. Liara T'Soni had yet to meet with the rest, instead trying to work out what she could remember of what Damien reported as his last known position. When the marine asked Stall where she was going, he quickly caught him up. "I think Damien was injured in the firefight, he stopped answering the radio. We need to organize a search for his bod—" Stall noticed a shudder from Alyssa right as he explained about the loss of radio contact, and amended his statement. "For him."

The search was quickly organized while Victor and Alyssa were lead back to the ship to get lifted by the gurney and treated for their injuries. One of the searching marines found a figure slumped over in the bottom of a narrow, shallow gully. The rest came running and waited for the first to take his vitals and inspect his injury.

"Bullet's still inside, he's unconscious but alive."

"Let's get him back to the ship ASAP. Private, be careful lifting him... There... Good. Ok, marines, let's roll. Back to dust-off, everybody. Cover our retreat, keep an eye out for any geth stragglers. Clear? Move out!"

The marines did as asked and soon Damien's limp form was lifted back aboard the _Bunker Hill_. Captain Reed didn't wish to move the ship to a more suitable landing site and wait for the boots on the ground to secure their route and the LZ itself, so she ordered the marines to climb aboard immediately. The rest of the marines attached themselves to the rope lines, one per line, and were pulled up by winches. The marines were disconnected from the lines at the top, and the line sent back over the side for the next one. Once everyone was accounted for, Reed ordered the _Bunker Hill_ back into orbit, where she met the human reinforcements that arrived too late to confront the geth ships.

- - - - -

Damien cracked an eye open, then the other. It took a couple minutes to recognize the ceiling of the med bay on the _Bunker Hill._ He groaned, still feeling rather wiped out. Doctor Gazelle Roberts walked up to his bedside, giving him a very warm smile. "You're alright. You're back on the ship. I got you all fixed up."

"—Crap." Damien tried to speak.

"It's ok, you had a nasty wound and lost a good deal of blood, I'd be surprised if you _didn't_ feel pretty 'crappy'. But you're out of the woods and we'll have you up and about in no time."

"Kay." Damien's lips were dry and cracked, and his tongue felt equally dry. "Wahter."

Roberts nodded, pressing a button and lifting the head of the bed so Damien was in a comfortable seated position. She then produced some water in a very cheap looking cup and placed a straw inside it, holding it up for him. Damien took a long drag and sighed with relief. He then drank a little more before deciding he'd had enough. Roberts placed the cup nearby and jotted down some information on her chart, eying the computer readouts above and behind Damien's head. He looked around curiously and spotted both Alyssa Morgan and Victor Stall in the med bay with their own beds as well. Morgan looked rather comfortable, and Victor looked pallid, but alive. Alyssa nodded in his direction, the two sharing a look into the other's eyes.

"Welcome back, Civvy."

Roberts left his bedside to attend to her duties. Damien groaned at Morgan's salutation. "Still calling me that? I got shot, for crying out loud."

Alyssa laughed brightly at that, helping to dispel the solemn atmosphere surrounding them both. "Yeah I guess you did. Feel like a soldier now?"

Damien considered her query. "Probably not," He answered both truthfully and ruefully. "I do feel like a cruiser ran me over, though."

"Ain't far from the truth, Civvy." She replied, smiling. "Glad you're ok."

Damien came back with a lively, "You too." The two exchanged a good-natured laugh and fell back into a comfortable silence. Damien wanted some more sleep, but before he could, Roberts approached his side again.

"Damien if you don't mind I need to talk with you about your blood work."

"Ok." Damien gulped. The way Doctor Roberts said it sounded downright foreboding.

"As part of your blood typing I sampled your blood and ran a full DNA workup. The military keeps detailed records because it often helps with my job by taking the guesswork out of the issue. Since this was done outside of your permission in order to treat you, you have the right to request the DNA record be destroyed. The blood type information was necessary for transfusions, and will continue to be important in the future, so it's exempt."

"Alright," Damien replied slowly, thinking he knew where she was going with this inquiry.

"Anyway, your DNA markers show some very odd sequences for humans. In fact, if I had to identify them, I'd say they have a lot more in common with _asari_ DNA. Can you explain this?"

Damien considered her question. "Between you and me?" He asked quietly.

"Doctor-patient." Roberts agreed.

"My parents were a little—off their rockers. They did an experiment on their unborn child and combined a bit of asari DNA into my own genetic code. They were arrested when I was very young for their crime, and I was placed in a foster home. But the genetic modification became a part of me, incapable of being separated from the rest. So I've always been a little—bit of a mix."

"Incredible!" Roberts was aghast. "I don't believe it!"

"Believe what, Doc?" Morgan asked, as their hushed voices finally had become loud enough for her to hear.

"Nothing, Lieutenant." Roberts replied, her face turning a little red she whispered to Damien, "Sorry."

"It's ok. I think I'd like that DNA test destroyed, if you don't mind. I'm enough of a freak as just a human biotic."

Roberts nodded vigorously. "I will do it immediately. If you don't—can I ask—can you tell me more about this later?"

"Doctor-patient?"

"Of course."

"Then yeah," Damien decided. Gazelle moved off, and Damien turned on his side, resting. He slept for several more hours before he awoke again, in the middle of the night shift. Doctor Roberts was off duty by now, leaving a low-lit med bay and a physician's assistant behind. Machines quietly registered their scans of rhythmic patterns in breathing and heart rate. For a while, Damien watched Alyssa's panel, trying to gauge movements between her silhouette and a registered breath on the machine. Whether from distance or the almost pitch-black room, he couldn't make out movements at all. Getting bored, he decided to attempt to sit up and immediately felt the return of discomfort from his wound. It wasn't hardly as bad as when he was first shot, so he bore the discomfort until it gradually started to subside or his brain finally decided to ignore it. He wasn't sure which was truly happening, but so long as the pain went away, he wasn't complaining.

Perhaps the drugs were messing with his mind, because Damien simultaneously felt tired and wired. He couldn't keep his eyes closed, but he didn't have a lot of energy to get up and walk around. Suddenly he spied movement out of the corner of his eye. Surprised, his biotic reflex responded dutifully and a corona lit up the space around him with a thin purple glow. It set off the shadows better, and he could see Morgan's silhouette much easier now. She wasn't asleep either—but was staring at him now that the corona had gotten her attention. Quietly, Damien asked almost timidly, "Still awake?" His voice barely a whisper, he wasn't sure if it carried all the way to the next bed.

"Yeah," came an unhappy sigh.

"Me too. I think the drugs are messing with my sleep schedule."

"It's probably the ship schedule. You slept a long time and it put you on a different timezone than the rest of us."

"Is that why you're still up?"

There was silence for a very long time. "No."

"Want to talk about it?" Damien asked, still extremely quiet, almost reverential.

"I'm thinking about Yates." She answered simply, but her tone carried a longing and pain all its own, speaking to the depths of how shaken Alyssa Morgan truly was. "I'm 26 years old. That's five more years than Elizabeth got. I never—thought it could happen. Not to her—she was too young. Smart, cool under pressure. We were an unstoppable force together."

Damien listened quietly. He'd been responsible for separating many people from friends and family for their own safety before. However many times he did it, it was still hard on the witness, and usually it was only temporary. Death held more permanence than Damien wanted to deal with, and talking about Elizabeth's passing made him feel more inadequate to deal with Alyssa's loss.

Alyssa had resumed speaking, "She loved her family. I was always so jealous. She could get along with her parents, sister, brothers. I left my family behind when I joined the memory. There was no love there, in our family." That in itself seemed a story all unto its own, but Damien kept his eyes glued to his hands, resting folded together in his lap. He didn't press or direct the conversation, instead waiting to see where it would carry them.

"She found more happiness than I ever could find. I always wanted to be around her—she was my best friend, not just someone under my command. Her laugh could make me smile, and feel like everything was ok even when it wasn't."

"She sounds very special," Damien offered. "I wish I'd had more time to get to know her. From what little time I did know her, everything you've said is true."

Alyssa did not answer. She breathed deeply, trying to steel her resolve once again, and press forward. "How am I going to do this? Who am I going to talk to? How am I ever going to feel ok ever again without her to help me?"

He wanted to ask just how serious Alyssa really thought their relationship was, but it felt invasive and uncalled for. It was their relationship, not his. Instead, he cleared his throat. "I think it's easier if you don't think of it as her leaving you behind. She's still with you, in your mind's eye you can picture her there, talking and laughing, and join in."

"Sounds like something a schizophrenic would use to cope."

Despite the weight of the conversation, Damien chuckled fondly at her observation. "Maybe I am a little crazy," He admitted. "After all, only my second time with the rappelling rope bit, and already I just _had_ to do it solo. Kinda crazy to take that chance, you think about it."

"I figured you could fly." Alyssa smiled at the thought. "Can you?"

Damien chuckled again, much softer than last time. "No, I can't fly. I can't use my biotics on myself very well. It's like trying to torque a nut with a short ratchet. You can't apply the torque you can get by moving out and using a longer ratchet. The distance between me and my target eases the force component of the torque force. Same with biotics—I can affect objects not connected to me easier than anything that is connected to me. Course, it breaks down when you get pretty far away, then it falls away again. There's a sweet spot somewhere in the middle, that's where biotics are strongest."

"Shut the hell up," came a muffled voice a few beds down. Damien and Alyssa both instantly recognized it.

"Victor?" She asked, surprised and hopeful, spinning around to get a look at him. He was laying as he had been before, but the frustration was evident on his furrowed brow, even in the dark.

"Who else would it be?" He quipped, then warned them, "Now be quiet. Some of us are actually trying to heal and crap, and we—ok, I need some sleep!"

"Days aren't enough for you?" Alyssa joked. "Alright, Vic, get your rest. We'll be quiet."

"Mhmm."

Damien waited to see if Alyssa wanted to wrap up their conversation, but she laid back down on her bed and settled down. With a commotion of his own, he got himself back under the thin sheets and laid down to attempt rest once again. More to himself than to anyone else, he whispered, "Goodnight Alyssa." Only silence embraced his words.

- - - - -

Within a week, all three were discharged and returned to active status. By then, Liara had departed the _Bunker Hill_, taking her information to Commander Shepard of the _Normandy_, on their way to the Citadel to present everything they'd learned. It was also time for Ravi-Korian Nar Scyian to leave, and it was a bittersweet affair for her. She'd grow accustomed to living with her hero—there was no doubt in her mind that he was just that—and wasn't sure she wanted to leave. But the invitation to stow aboard was never intended to be a permanent offer, and she could stay no longer. With a tearful goodbye, Ravi bid each of the squad members a farewell, taking the longest saying goodbye to Damien.

"Thank you for everything you've done for me," Ravi smiled behind her environmental suit's helmet.

"I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, there's nothing for which to thank me. I'm just glad I could lend my services." His large smile, however betrayed the joy he got from her thanksgivings.

"I know," She stated. "I'll miss you."

"You'll be alright." Damien told her. "I know it."

She was caught surprised by his confidence and it made her much more confident in herself. She nodded, turning away to disembark. The trio waved to her as the doors of the decontamination chamber cycled shut, leaving her one doorway away from the docking bay where _Bunker Hill_ was tethered. Taking a deep breath, she told herself, "Here goes nothing," and stepped out into her new life.

The sole departure having been handled, Reed ordered the ship back into orbit. Once Knight had piloted them into a stable orbit, Ashley went to the comm room, hailing command. Rear Admiral Joseph Timber, her commanding officer, answered the hail shortly after. "Captain Reed, I'm glad to see the _Bunker Hill_'s still alive and kicking. I have to say, your report on the geth attack on Therum certainly had me worried. The odds were not in your favor for pressing an attack."

Ashley nodded. "Yes, sir. We normally would not have attempted to wage a one-ship war, but with boots on the ground, a colony to protect, and the only Alliance ship in the system at the time, I felt we had little choice but to at least attempt to draw their fire, delay them."

"It worked quite well in that respect, at least." Admiral Timber summarized, "The geth were unable to soundly defeat your ship, and their wasted effort bought Therum enough time for more fifth fleet vessels to arrive. If the geth hadn't known we were coming, it's likely they would have lost a capital ship."

"Sir." Reed agreed with a slight nod.

"So, why have you called, Captain?"

"I have good news, Admiral. We've offloaded our passenger, and our ground team has been put back on active duty. Our repairs were completed, so we're ready for deployment."

"Good," the admiral seemed relieved. "The 'Triple Fives' have been at reduced strength for long enough. I'll let Admiral Hackett know my flotilla is ready to go. I have a feeling, Captain, that we're going to be seeing deployment orders soon. Keep your crew sharp. I want you to rendezvous with the rest of the flotilla in the Attican Beta cluster, in Hercules. Once there, I want you to take charge of combat and fleet action simulations. I want the Triple Fives back in top shape."

"Not a problem, Admiral." Ashley told him. "Have any of the other ships in the 55th flotilla reported any problems of which I should be made aware?"

"No, not to me, Captain." Joseph answered. "Looks like you've been getting all the action for the flotilla."

"Understood, sir." Reed smiled.

"Test a few high-V bombing runs and your typical wolf pack maneuvers. I want a flawless performance when I see our flotilla in action."

"Yes, sir."

"Alright, Timber out." The FTL comm shut down and Ashley relaxed her posture. Heading out of the comm room, she immediately spied her XO at the CIC, and gave him the order.

"Mr. Wells, I need us in Hercules. Set a course for the Attican Beta cluster and get us underway immediately."

"Yes, Captain." Corman Wells immediately began conferring with the navigation officer, Ruben Bishop. The way points for the shortest route determined, and a rough ETA calculated at a half day of travel, Wells took the navigation information and had Larissa Knight change course. The _Bunker Hill_ rocketed to FTL speeds, leaving the colony world behind as it struck off for the appropriate mass relay.

The _Bunker Hill_ came out of FTL near Zatorus, the outermost planet orbiting Hercules' star. The other frigates of the 55th scout flotilla were already in various orbits of the planet. As she coasted in to join the others, Ashley ordered comms to open up a voice link between all ships.

"This is Captain Reed of the _SSV Bunker Hill_. All actuals, please report in."

"_SSV Stirling Bridge, _Commander William Pittman."

"_SSV Dunbar_, Commander Rachael Keats."

"_SSV Bannockburn,_ Commander Matthew Ballard."

"_SSV Yorktown,_ Commander Wesley Dunham."

"_SSV Stalingrad_, Commander Simone Lynn."

"What have you got for us, Captain?" Keats asked. _Typical,_ Reed thought with a smile,_ she always wants the last word._

"The Triple Fives could be in for some action depending on how things work out. We're to work on our fleet and wolf pack maneuvers. The rear admiral wants us in top fighting form."

"Ooh, sounds like fun." Keats awed.

"All ships," Reed returned to a businesslike tone, "break orbit. Form up at these coordinates. First up, let's get the easy stuff out of the way—practicing FTL maneuvers."

- - - - -

After much consideration, Damien decided to attempt placement on a small squad, with particular emphasis on being a field medic. He was still required to take pistol training under Lieutenant Morgan, and field medical training he received from the CMO, Gazelle Roberts. Although his training was ongoing, he was called to the mess to meet with the Captain and Alyssa Morgan.

The Captain was the last to arrive, noticing Morgan stiffen to full attention and Damien gave her full eye contact, if not much of a standing at attention. She smiled. "I can't decide if I like the fact you're a civilian or hate it, Mr. Cross."

Damien flashed a smile, hoping this indicated the meeting would be pleasant after all. "Perhaps a mix of both," he suggested.

Ashley Reed nodded. "I'm due back on the bridge in fifteen minutes for further maneuvers. However, given recent events and the speed with which we may be forced to deploy, I think it's best that my top squad be in its best possible condition."

Although she said nothing, Morgan was deeply affected to hear her captain speak so highly of her squad. She was still wary, however, concerned at what Captain Reed was proposing as a solution to "recent events." No one could take Elizabeth's place and fill it. It would be impossible, and Morgan was determined to prove that to her CO.

"I know this has been difficult for you, Lieutenant, but we've got to start to plan for the future. You need to fill your third position. Have you given any more thought to the names I've given you?"

"Ma'am, I've looked at them a thousand times, it's just—" Morgan trailed off, feeling helpless.

"No need to explain, Lieutenant, I understand what you're going through. This isn't easy, and I'm sorry to do this to you, but I've made the decision for you."

"What? Who?" Alyssa's eyes immediately shot over to Damien, who looked rather like a deer in the headlights, managing no response whatsoever for several seconds.

"Are you—are you saying—" Damien questioned, unbelieving.

"Damien Cross, I'm appointing you to Lieutenant Alyssa Morgan's squad."

More than a little surprised, and concerned what Morgan must be thinking, he managed, "Um, thanks, Captain. I—I'll do my best?" The lack of conviction in his voice slapped him in the face, forcing him to repress a reactionary grimace. He barely managed to contain it.

Alyssa wanted to protest vehemently but the utter shock from Reed's announcement was like a slap to her face. She was startled, confused, and above all, angry.

"Lieutenant Morgan, Mr. Cross, dismissed." Ashley Reed studied Morgan for any outward reactions for several seconds before turning and leaving the two alone in the mess room. Alyssa didn't say anything, and right now Damien would give anything just for some kind of reaction to see how she was going to take this development. Several abortive attempts to talk to her later, he excused himself quietly. Alyssa, for her part, made no actions whatsoever, other than to steel her nerves and force a calm breathing pattern. Finally, she headed for the sleeper pods, letting herself into one of them, wishing she could lock it closed behind her.

Her anger flared up despite all her efforts to contain it, and she let out a barely repressed, incoherent scream, lifting her fists into the air at the height of her head, trembling in rage. Her eyes darkened and the trembling spread from just her arms to her entire upper torso. She clenched her arms across her stomach and almost doubled-over onto the cot, still unable to stop herself from screaming._ This isn't fair, this isn't right. How could you do this to me!?_

- - - - -

Damien wound his way into engineering. Perhaps it was born of habit, but Damien had begun to treat engineering as a safe haven, a place to hide and think. Usually, Gabrielle Allshouse would take a moment or two to talk with him, but whenever she was otherwise occupied with work, Damien still liked to take some time to stand in a corner, watching the Tantalus drive core rotate its massive arms in a never ending cycle, and the pulses of electricity flow from the front to the back with a rhythmic pulse.

_Pulse. That's it, it's it. I just want to see the ship's pulse, know that it's breathing, it's alive._

Damien furrowed his brow. What would Gabrielle say to that? She loved technology as much as anyone aboard, if not more so, but she certainly didn't seem to think of the ship as a living being. How could she, he mused, when she sees it every day, works on it, maintains it. She knows it for what it really is, a machine, and though it is just as beautiful as a real, human pulse to Damien, Gabrielle must see beyond the splendor and into the inner workings.

In a way, she was robbed of such pleasure, of taking comfort from this inanimate object. Instead, she saw diagnostics, power levels, simple machines pieced together, making a larger and more sophisticated one. She had been taught all this so she could maintain it, fix it when it broke.

Damien decided if that was truly her lot, he was glad he was the one standing in the corner, basking in the beauty of it, blissfully ignorant. He'd not want to lose the splendor for the sake of utility and skills, not if he could avoid it.

"You seem rather deep in thought today," Gabrielle walked up after ordering a few underlings to finish on whatever she was working. "Penny for your thoughts?"

Damien smiled at her, giving a small shrug of his shoulders. "What do you see here?"

"Where?" Gabrielle asked, turning to look at the rest of engineering, following his gaze.

"Never mind, I think that answers my question." Damien answered quickly, feeling slightly sympathetic for her.

Gabrielle turned back to him with a confounded look. "You are about the weirdest guy—ever—Damien." She stated with full honesty.

Damien smiled slyly. "Gotta leave an impression on the girls somehow—" He explained sarcastically.

"Uh huh." She didn't believe him. "What brings you down here today?"

"I just got posted to an official position on the crew. Before it's just been, like, general help. Now I've got a real_ job_."

"_Really_." Gabrielle asked, sounding impressed. "Whatcha doing?"

Damien licked his lips, wondering how it would sound to say it aloud. "I'm on Morgan's team." He tested it out, and couldn't decide how he felt about that.

"Ah," she replied knowingly. "That's going to be _fun_." She implied sympathy with her remark.

Damien took a deep breath of air, letting it out slowly and loudly. "—Yeah," he answered back. "I'm glad to have a position, but on the best team on the ship? And you should have seen Morgan—she looked completely—blank. It was disturbing. I couldn't see into her eyes but she seems to be struggling with this. And I have to replace Elizabeth—well, I don't mean replace," Damien added nervously, but found it hard to put into words exactly what he was trying to say with his last sentence.

"No, I get it." Gabrielle reassured. "It's going to be complicated."

"Yeah," Damien agreed with a short snort. "Why did the Captain do this?"

"The Captain?" Gabrielle's ears perked up. "She—Alyssa didn't choose you?"

Damien looked up, confused. "What? No—I mean, why would she?"

"No reason," Gabrielle covered. "Well, this makes things even better doesn't it?"

Damien noticed her sarcasm and let the topic drop. "Yeah, it's a bit of a mess, isn't it. What do you think I should do? Should I try to talk to her?"

It was Gabrielle's turn to snort. "Ha. No. Unless you talk to walls, in which case, what's the difference? Just—" she paused, "Just do what she tells you to do. Help her out, and don't bring it up. When she wants to talk about Elizabeth—_if_ she wants to talk about Elizabeth, you let her do that too."

"Ok." Damien replied, smiling thankfully. "I can do that."

"Alright." Gabrielle flashed a winning smile, lifting her friend's spirits further. "Now, I've gotta get back to work before the whole ship flies apart. You going to head back up to deck two?"

Damien considered it. "If it's alright, I'm just going to watch for a bit longer."

"Fine by me," Gabrielle replied, leaving his side to return to her work.

_The ship's pulse,_ Damien mused once again, watching the drive core. He let his mind blank out, releasing his stress, letting everything worrying him simply fall away as he stood, transfixed by the lights and motions. When he finally felt restored, he turned quietly and left without saying another word.

The battle station alert had been going off and on again many times over the past few hours as drills were conducted. Damien learned quickly to stay out of the way of the rest of the crew. Whenever an alert was called, he reported to the lockers and suited up for immediately deployment anywhere. Usually, by the time he'd gotten the lightweight armor over his head and into place, Alyssa Morgan would already be next to him, suited and ready to go, timing his response time. He was far from as fast as Alyssa herself, but each time he got better.

Damien was in the mess hall, surfing the Extranet news for anything new, when another battle stations alert was issued. Grumbling as he glanced at the ship chronometer, he decided keeping this pace with the drills must drive the crew into early retirement if not suicide. Still, he dutifully responded, heading immediately down to deck three and running up to his locker, pulling out his shiny, undamaged suit of black armor. As he wrestled with his gear, Morgan arrived, tying her bootstraps quickly. Soon as she finished, she made a point of standing over Damien, watching the chronometer, timing him once again. She never spoke to him, but Damien could tell she wasn't happy with the time it took him to catch up. Victor Stall was nearby, in gear and waiting.

Damien finished his last connection, fully suited up. His pistol was clipped to his left hip, the only weapon he carried. On his back and front pockets he had various medical supplies for use in the field, especially medigel and a single 1000 ml IV bag of saline solution. Morgan pretended to yawn, eying him critically. "You can do better, _Civvy_." She stressed the last word, allowing venom to positively drip from the word. Damien returned her challenging gaze, refusing to be intimidated by the marine.

A voice cut between them as the stare down continued, coming over the comm radios. "Lieutenant Morgan, I want your team geared up and at the docking port ASAP."

Alyssa tapped her radio, replying, "On our way now, Captain."

The trio quickly boarded the elevator and rode it up to deck two, then took the stairs to the CIC and bridge. They headed straight for the docking port, awaiting instructions. The Captain remained at her post, standing above the holographic display that showed her the 3-D space surrounding the _Bunker Hill_. She radioed Morgan to avoid having to yell across the deck to her. "Lieutenant, the _Dunbar_ engine overloaded and several engineers were injured. I've got our med bay prepping for casualties, I need you to take the least serious cases and escort them to our med bay. Bring the more serious, immobile injuries to their medical bay."

"Acknowledged, Captain." Morgan replied in an authoritative, emotionless tone. The decontamination door opened in front of the squad and the three quickly entered the decontamination room. After they entered, the door cycled shut before opening the exterior door. The three quickly walked through the sealed tube connecting the two frigates and pressed a button on the _SSV Dunbar's_ exterior hull, near its door. Moments later the crew opened the exterior door and the procedure was repeated in reverse order, finally allowing the trio into the _Dunbar_'s living spaces.

A crewman was waiting for them, quickly leading Alyssa off the bridge and down towards engineering. He explained, "Full casualty report thus far: the entire engineering crew was hit in some way by the explosion. Some have severe burns on chest and arms from being the closest to the explosion."

"Do you know what caused it?" Morgan inquired. "Is it likely to happen again while we're down there?"

"No, the core's secured and we're running on backup systems. Automatic failsafe."

"Let's get in there," Damien urged them forward faster than before. The crewman quickly complied, leading them to engineering, where a thick smoke formed fog. They choked and coughed as a group, but proceeded inside to assist in securing the engineers for transport to either med bay. Damien quickly started to work on one engineer, hit hard by the explosion. He braced the neck expertly, helping the engineer lie down on a backboard as soon as another person was available to assist him. Together they picked up the engineer and brought him through the smoke, heading for the med bay.

Damien escorted an engineer with minor burns and a concussion, intending to bring him to the _Bunker Hill_. All in all, twenty crew were injured, seven severe enough to be kept in the _Dunbar's _bay, the others taken for treatment in the _Bunker Hill_. The ship's sickbay was busy and cramped, but the lesser injuries meant that after treating the light burns and other light injuries they could leave the med bay. Damien was quickly collared into assisting Doctor Roberts with the minor injuries.

Alyssa Morgan didn't see him again for nearly two hours. When he finally wandered out, he gave her a tired smile. "I don't know how she does it; she's amazing." Damien told her, stretching for the first time since the disaster began. "Gives me a whole new respect for anyone in medicine."

Morgan nodded, sharing the sentiment. "You did good, Civvy." She added, almost as an afterthought. "Dismissed."

Damien raised an eyebrow, surprised. He shrugged it off and headed for the locker room to remove his armor and free himself to a more full range of motion. After doing so, he ended up remaining on the bench, cramped from the close quarters to which he'd been subjected. With a groan, he got back up and walked, trying to work through the discomfort and restore his neck muscles.

Once the cramps left him, Damien decided to spend some time practicing biotics. With the drills on hold for the foreseeable future, he had time to kill without worrying about sudden tactical alerts. He grabbed a small flexible ball, commonly used to work the hand and wrist by squeezing. He gave a few good squeezes to test it out before starting. First he threw it across the mako bay, causing it to bounce weakly off the personnel tank and land on the ground a good twenty meters away. Damien lightened the ball further, making it float gently next to the mako, then formed a singularity to attract it. Within seconds, it flew straight into his hand, and he gave it another squeeze, smiling. Next he whipped it his hardest with his right hand, and froze it while still following through on the throw itself. The stasis field held the ball in midair, unable to move. Seconds later the stasis wore off and it fell straight down to land only a few feet away. Another singularity brought it back into his hand.

At this point, his biotics had gone some time without much use. He was enjoying the feeling of using them again, and his biotic corona seemed unnaturally prevalent. Whenever he was anxious to use his abilities, it took less and less compulsion to create a corona, and less time to activate his ability. Damien wasn't certain why it worked this way, but he'd observed it a long time ago. Learning this had actually caused him to start repressing his ability in public, thereby making the threshold required to make the corona even higher. The higher threshold was invaluable in civilian and public situations as the last thing he wanted was to be judged as threatening just for being what he was.

Here, he let it all go, allowing the biotic energy full reign over his body. He could almost feel it flowing through his bloodstream, electrifying him. He physically threw the ball again, but called it back instantly with a singularity, stopping it before it could even get five meters away and bringing it accelerating back to him.

Next, he held it in one open palm and applied a throwing biotic force, causing it to leave his palm in a flash and fly across the room. Damien momentarily lost track of the ball but then spied it still rolling on the floor. He used a series of quick, minor singularities between himself and his target, placing each closer to the ball than to himself. Gradually, he got it to roll back to his feet. One last singularity pulled it off the floor, straight up into a waiting palm. He grabbed it, squeezing it in order to avoid letting it drop again.

"Practicing, Civvy?" Alyssa Morgan's voice. She appeared from a dark corner of the large bay, coming from behind the mako.

Damien cleared his throat, painfully aware of his purple corona shining its most brightest luminance, completely unabashed. "Yeah, Lieutenant." The corona seemed permanent, strangely enough, refusing to dim away and disappear even though he had stopped calling on his biotic powers.

Alyssa watched the purple energy dance around his arms, legs, even his face. The effect was artistic, and for once she realized why the term corona fit this phenomenon so well. "Does that always happen?" Alyssa raised a hand, indicating the shining light covering his silhouette.

"Yes," Damien answered. "It comes before any biotic power at all. No sneaking one past before you know it's coming."

"When does it stop?"

_A good question_, Damien thought irritably. "Normally, soon as I stop. Sometimes it can last a little while longer."

"You're practically a night light." Alyssa observed, giggling.

Damien gave her a sarcastic smile as the corona began to fade away. Suddenly, he rebelled, deciding he would not hide it any longer. The corona flashed again and Damien held the ball in his right hand purposefully. Without warning her, he wound up and pitched the ball straight at her, calling a stasis field even as it left his hand. The ball flew straight for her face but froze suddenly, only a half meter short of its target.

Alyssa visibly recoiled, but not fully, seeming to stop her reflex midstream. She stared at the hovering ball, walking up to it. She tried to poke it with one hand, but the stasis field was like a solid wall built around it, disallowing her to affect it in any noticeable way.

"Freaky." She stated, placing her hand back at her side. Just as she was turning back to face Damien, the ball fell straight down, surprising her peripheral vision. She watched the ball suspiciously, but it did nothing after rolling a scant few centimeters on the floor.

Damien, grinning from ear to ear, called out, "Better watch yourself that thing seems to have a mind of its own, doesn't it?"

"No, just your demented basket case of a psyche." She replied ruefully. "What, you trying to convince me it's going to bite me?" She gave a knowing grin.

Damien purposefully took a step to his left, forcing her eyes a little further to her right to follow him. His corona continued to lap lackadaisically. With an imperceptible thought, he lifted the ball until it was level with her eyes, then said, "Uh oh, you'd better look out?"

"What?" Alyssa challenged, turning to look where he was pointing. Mere centimeters from her face, she gave a slight shriek of surprise and recoiled away yet again.

Damien laughed wickedly. "Lieutenant, are you afraid of a little stress ball?"

Getting irritated, she answered with a grunt of discontent. "Ugh. If you were in the military, I would _so_ have your ass in the stockade for disrespecting a superior officer."

Damien called the floating orb back to him with another singularity. He plucked it gently from the air soon as it was close enough. "Sorry, Lieutenant. Just trying to impress you." He smirked.

"Ass." She replied, but smiled. "You seem pretty good with all this biotic stuff. I thought you had to go to BAaT for training to get good at controlling it."

"It definitely helps," Damien admitted. "But it's basically just classical conditioning your brain. When I do this motion," Damien pantomimed slowly, pushing a fist through the air towards Alyssa. "I'm supposed to associate that motion with this," and Damien let the ball fall from one hand, pushing it gently with a horizontal force so it fell on the ground, rolling towards Alyssa, and stopped at her feet. "But I've discovered you don't always need that gesture to achieve control over biotics." He demonstrated by creating a singularity that quickly pulled the ball back to his own feet, then another to pull it up into a waiting hand. "It's kinda the hard way to do it," he admitted. "It's faster if you just pantomime anyway. The conditioning's there, it's a smoother, quicker route through the brain to the biotic part of you. I taught myself with motions at first, but eventually I stopped needing them. Well, until I had to use them in combat." Damien recalled Therum once again. "Speed is of the essence, you know."

"Right." She replied. She wouldn't admit it to him, but biotics intimidated her fiercely. No matter how much she tried to suppress the fear, it was still there. Damien had illustrated that quite well with his "killer" stress ball. She wondered if he realized that was why she was so unnerved by his earlier performance. She kept her eyes fixed to his, showing no fear, determined to keep it her secret. The purple corona danced around him randomly still, making her wonder if he wasn't yet finished with his demonstration.

"Anyway," Damien changed tracks. "BAaT's got very little to do with successful biotics. You can train yourself just as easily as they can train you, assuming you know all their little conditioning tricks. That sort of stuff is becoming harder to keep a lid on, what with there being more and more biotics manifesting all the time. Eventually it broke onto the Extranet, instructions on how to train and hone your killer brainwaves, blah blah blah, and now I'm here, perfectly capable and zero time in a biotic classroom."

"Killer brainwaves, huh?" Morgan didn't like the sound of that, but kept her voice indifferent.

"Just a joke," Damien told her. "It's funny because when you're biotic you learn pretty quickly how much you are distrusted and how easily you can frighten other people. Nobody wants an altercation with us. Least, nobody I've met. I guess I didn't count the geth, though, did I? There's one."

"Must be hard, people judging you before they even know your name."

"It is," Damien admitted. "Anyway; we're no more deadly than someone packing a pistol. Well, ok, maybe we're a bit more dangerous than that, but still, it's not like we're the only ones capable of killing."

"Hmm," Came her noncommittal reply.

Damien shrugged. "Yeah I guess that's wishful thinking. A biotic can freeze people, lift them into the air, throw them around, and all sorts of stuff like that. Hard to shoot back once you're enveloped in a mass effect field. Gives us an enormous upper hand if we prevent our targets from even being able to return fire."

"I'd say so," Alyssa agreed.

Damien looked to be in thought. "Still, I don't think we deserve this. Treated with suspicion and hatred, fear. Look at me, I've only ever used my biotics for self defense before I met the captain and yourself. Nobody has anything to fear from me unless they pull a gun on me. But the public doesn't know that. They just see a purple haze, and immediately their eyes narrow, they pull their kids closer to them, and they walk on the other side of the street."

Speaking of purple hazes, Damien's corona disappeared from a lack of biotic use. He looked completely human, completely normal, and completely nonthreatening once again. Alyssa wondered how many biotics she may have walked past on a busy street without knowing how truly powerful they were.

A comfortable silence ensued, which Damien broke first. "So what brings you down here, Lieutenant. Just spectating?"

"Pretty much," Morgan confessed. "I was bored. Thought I'd pick on the civilians."

"Ah," Damien nodded, fully realizing he was the only one aboard. "Well, find some place comfortable and I'll see what I can do then." He smiled at her, lighting his corona. A biotic push threw his stress ball through the air and towards a far wall, and then a large singularity formed ahead of it, causing the ball to begin orbiting the singularity at a fast rate of speed.

Alyssa watched, marveling at how it reminded her of an atom, particularly hydrogen, with a nucleus and one orbiting electron. The ball was then pushed again, forcefully, giving it the kinetic energy to fly off tangentially and stop its perpetual orbit. The singularity broke apart as well, and the ball hit the far wall with a resounding thud before falling to the ground. Damien didn't want to use a large singularity close to himself because it might be powerful enough to attract other lose objects in the mako bay, so he chained together some small singularities placed close to the ball to accelerate it in his direction.

When it arrived back in hand, he tossed it in the air and froze it with a stasis field. Then he laid down on supine underneath it allowing it to fall straight at his head. When it got close he applied a lifting force, allowing it to rise back up slowly. It hovered near the ceiling before that wore off as well and Damien used a simple push force to accelerate it back up in the air. By the time the ball bounced off the ceiling, he had another lift ready to stabilize it. Then he stood up, bending over almost ninety degrees, placing his back, near to his neck, as close as he could to directly under the ball, intending to catch it. However, once the force wore off, the stress ball missed his back entirely, whistling past his right ear and landing unceremoniously on the floor. With a rueful grin, he picked it up and stood straight again.

"Close," Alyssa encouraged, smiling. "Hey, where'd you get that anyway?"

"I just found it sitting by some gear in here." Damien admitted. "Although if I ever figure out whose it is, I'm going to ask to borrow it—a lot."

"No doubt." Alyssa grinned evilly, her smug smirk catching Damien's attention and placing him off balance. "It's mine, by the way, Civvy." She stood up, walking towards the elevator.

The blood flowed straight out of Damien's face. "No kidding, really?"

"Yup." She replied. "Good job stealing my stuff."

"Sorry, Lieutenant. You want it back?"

"Heck no." Morgan replied. "You've touched it."

"Har har," Damien's sarcastic streak was always ready to back him up in a pinch. He received no further answer from Alyssa before the door began to close, but he did observe a wicked smile creep into the corners of her mouth before the door could completely hide her. Looking at the ball itself, he told it, "Well, too late now. Looks like your mine now." He proceeded to continue to practice with it some more before hiding it away in his locker.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

The 'Triple Fives' were ordered by Rear Admiral Joseph Timber to begin reconnoitering the Maroon sea cluster, near the Perseus Veil. Ashley Reed ordered the ships to separate upon arrival and begin combing through multiple clusters at once to look for any hostile activity.

The _Bunker Hill_ approached a freighter floating derelict. Commander Corman identified it as the _MSV Cornucopia_. "According to Systems Alliance records, the ship's been boarded once already. They found husks aboard. Apparently the geth lured the ship into the Veil and turned the crew before sending the ship here."

"Why? Was it some kind of warning?" Reed questioned.

"The report doesn't say. Perhaps the _Normandy_ never figured out for sure."

"The _Normandy_?" This caught the captain's attention. "Spectre Shepard?"

"Yes." Corman replied. "Apparently the owning corporation has relinquished their rights over the salvage a month ago. It's first come first serve."

"Nobody wants to be so close to geth space considering recent events," Reed postulated. "I can understand that."

"Should we claim it, Captain?"

Surprised at the suggestion, she questioned her XO, "What? Why would we want a piece of junk freighter?"

"There wasn't much left of value aboard the ship once the geth got a hold of it, but we could use it to practice a real wolf gang attack run. And we'd be cleaning up some space junk at the same time."

"By blowing it into millions of smaller, faster moving pieces of space junk." Reed completed his thought for him. "Aren't you just the galaxy's biggest tree hugger."

Corman smirked. "Laugh if you want, but it's here, we're here, _why not_?"

"We got a cluster to secure first," Reed reminded him. "But I'll keep it in mind, Commander."

Below them on deck two, Damien was losing a card game rather horribly to Victor Stall. Now he was beginning to understand why Alyssa Morgan had politely refused the offer to join them. "Crap," He moaned as Victor collected his spoils from yet another winning hand. "I suck at cards," Damien bemoaned. "Never should have done this."

"Aw, it's looking up, chap." Victor encouraged him. "You only got five credits left until I wipe you out completely, then you're free to leave once again!"

Damien groaned again. He whispered below his breath, "Such an idiot," but despite his quiet tone Victor overheard him and smiled even larger. He loved winning at card games, and he was damned good at it, too. The next hand played out exactly like the last, with Damien's five whole credits committed to the bet. As Victor collected them, he heard his CO grunt with approval.

"Nice game, Vic." Lieutenant Morgan took a chair near the other two. "Ever the card shark."

"You know me, Lieutenant. Anything short of cheating." He grinned toothily. "Looking to join me in a new game?"

"Do I look delirious to you?" She turned a question back on him. "No, I'm just stopping in to let you guys know we're heading ground side in a bit."

"Really." Victor seemed excited. "What's up?"

"There's a planet called Chasca. Pioneer colonists got wiped out a long while back and it was never revisited. Apparently there's a lot of alliance goodies down there they gave the colonists for self defense. Captain says we've been ordered to retrieve them while searching the cluster for threats."

"Peachy." Victor replied with a snarky comment. "I was just thinking I haven't lifted any heavy boxes in a week."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll manage. Hey, we got a biotic, we can make _him_ do it." She shot a look towards Damien, who was unimpressed.

"Finally the real reason Systems Alliance wants biotics comes to light." He replied. "All this time, their combat potential was just a big cover story."

"Aw, poor baby." Morgan shot back. "We've got ten hours before we hit the atmosphere, so we're to remain off duty until then. Going to mess with our circadian rhythms a little, so do your best to grab rest where you can. I want us geared up and waiting at the mako at 0300 hours. That's 3 AM, Civvy."

With a grunt and a shake of his head, he answered, "I'm aware of military time, Lieutenant. No worries, I'll be ready."

"How long have we got to gather the supplies together?" Victor questioned.

"There's a lot of stuff to go through and three separate bases, Reed's giving us sixty hours to collect what we can. Meanwhile, they're finishing the reconnaissance with the rest of the Triple Fives."

"Why is this flotilla called the 'Triple Fives', anyway?" Damien wondered aloud.

"Of what fleet are we a part?" Morgan asked him patiently.

"Fifth." Damien answered without hesitation.

"What flotilla?"

"I don't recall." he admitted.

"Take a wild guess."

"Fifth?"

"No, Civvy." She answered as patronizingly as she could. "This is the 55th flotilla."

"Fifty-fifth flotilla... Fifth fleet..." It clicked in his head, then. "The Triple Five's!"

"You got it," She was still patronizing, giving Damien a wink before standing and walking out of the mess hall.

Damien growled lowly, "I hate it when she does that. I'm not military, but I'm not a _kid_ either."

Victor laughed, slamming a palm down on the table, unable to stop himself. "Uh huh. Don't sweat it, man. She doesn't mean anything by it."

"I beg to differ." Damien replied. "She's got it out for me, I think."

Victor sobered, still grinning. "Texas hold'um?"

Damien gave one look, raising an eyebrow as high as he could, at Victor to be his answer. He stood up and left the mess hall. Victor chuckled again. "I'm not a _kid_ either," He parroted to himself. "Oh my—that's just too—perfect." He slapped the table again while he laughed.

Damien wondered into engineering. He wasn't tired yet and doubted there was even a bunk available at this time. Getting used to hotbunking was quite difficult as he had never before been denied his own bed whenever he wanted it. Now, everything was scheduled so the most could be made of the fewest bunks. He sighed, leaned up against the wall, and watched Gabrielle working on a panel, high up on a ladder once again.

Below her, another crewman was working on a relay by sitting directly between the ladder's base and the wall. In a moment of carelessness and forgetfulness, the crewman stood up sharply, his back connecting with the ladder painfully. The force dislodged the ladder and with a scream Gabrielle found herself heading straight for the floor halfway across engineering. Damien looked up at the scream and panicked at the sight, realizing he was about to be crushed by both the chief engineer and her ladder.

Purple biotic energy burst forth and Damien felt it flow straight through his one hand he'd outstretched to catch the ladder in a futile effort to stop it. On pure reflex, a force was sent up and crushed Gabrielle against the ladder, reversing their momentum temporarily, and driving the air from her lungs.

When Damien realized what he'd done, he quickly came up with a more permanent solution. He applied a steady lift force and called out, "Let go of the ladder!"

Gabrielle heard the order and, while she was utterly disoriented, she was fairly certain letting go of the only thing capable of suspending her this high in the air was a very poor idea. Taking in a deep breath, she yelled, "What?!"

"I've got you, let go of the ladder." Damien instructed her again. She looked down, noticing a strange purple glow encompassing her lower body. With a shove, she threw the ladder back at the wall it had been propped against when this all started. The purple energy covered up the rest of her completely and she lost the ability to control her limbs._ I'm flying_, She realized, utterly shocked.

Damien concentrated carefully, and let the lifting force weaken. Not trusting himself to move while concentrating so entirely on his biotics, he remained still as he worked to lower Gabrielle. He clenched his teeth unconsciously, letting the lift finally deteriorate with Gabrielle mere inches from the floor. She landed with a soft thud and let out a groan. "Oof." Damien's corona continued to flash around him as he worried he might have done it improperly and injured her.

Gabrielle picked herself up off the floor with the help of the clumsy engineer. The engineers broke out into yells of congratulations while the clumsy engineer mumbled repeated apologies, asking along with everyone else in the room if she was all right. She brushed them all off, staring at Damien and the iridescent glow engulfing him. She walked right up to him, standing well inside his personal space. Damien didn't move as he returned Gabrielle's stare; the room went deathly quiet. When she was mere centimeters away, his mind briefly registered that he hadn't allowed himself to relax the biotic energy yet. "You saved me," Gabrielle stated.

Damien gulped before attempting to speak. "Yeah," He offered, hesitantly. Not even a second later, She encircled his torso in a big hug and squeezed so tight it forced the air out both of their lungs. Her head rested on his right shoulder and his head on her right shoulder. The engineering team began to clap and whistle again, and even one threw in a wert whirl. Damien couldn't tell how much time, but a while later she let go and began to pull away. He sucked in some much needed oxygen, as did she, and she thanked him.

His mind raced for a proper response before blurting out, "Your welcome," as he smiled back at her. The engineers crowded around, further separating them, each offering their congratulations and praise. Damien laughed, joining in the impromptu celebration with the others. A few minutes later, everyone dispersed to get back to work before anyone else noticed their dereliction of duty. Gabrielle looked apologetically at him before setting back off to work herself, so deciding he'd had enough action for the day, Damien retired to the mess hall and sleeper pods. Soon as one was available, Damien took it and tried to relax and catch a few extra hours before his early morning wake up call. This proved more difficult than expected, however, because he still felt the rush of wakefulness brought on by all the excitement and his panicked use of his biotics. Soon as he calmed down some more and the edge of his adrenaline wore off completely, the darkness helped him close his eyes and get some sleep.

He was encircled in cramped, tight spaces. Like the sleeper pods, only he couldn't stand straight up inside this space. Damien was surrounded by electronics, monitors, and readouts he couldn't even begin to guess at. Sitting ahead of him was Lieutenant Morgan in the driver's seat and Private Victor Stall sitting shotgun. Briefly, Damien wondered how one deployed a mako, he guessed it to be a long process involving the ship landing and lowering the ramp.

Through the windshield he watched the ramp pivot open and sucked in a deep breath as he realized the _Bunker Hill_ was still flying in atmosphere and apparently high enough the ground was not yet visible from his perspective.

"Hang on Civvy." Morgan smiled knowingly. "Hit it, Vic." Victor hit a few buttons and suddenly everyone was thrown into the back of their chairs as a catapult grabbed the undercarriage and threw the mako forward and out into the air. Morgan monitored the automatic pilot as it fired brief thruster shots from the mako's ventral propulsion jets to keep the mako's attitude properly aligned to the ground.

"Shit—" Damien grabbed onto anything and everything he could as he saw the clouds whip past the windshield. He could see the ground fast approaching now and was certain these were his final moments.

"Full burn in three—two—one—mark!" Victor timed off. Soon as his countdown finished, the three were flattened into the seat of their chairs now as the powerful ventral thrusters slowed their descent. The mako came down roughly on its suspension as it landed on the flat earth beneath it, bouncing violently and breaking to a stop at seven times the acceleration of earth-normal gravity, pushing each occupant firmly against their restraints. Damien opened his eyes, unaware of having closed them. He took a deep, jagged series of breaths, swearing and checking that he was indeed still in one piece.

"Whoa yeah!" Stall called out giddily. "Nice landing."

Morgan ignored her two male compatriots. "_Bunker Hill,_ this is shore party. We've touched down and all systems look nominal."

"Acknowledged, shore party. Work quickly, we'll be back before you know it." Reed's voice came back over the mako speakers. "_Bunker Hill_ out."

"You could have warned me," Damien complained irritably. "Holy hell."

"Quite a rush, isn't it?" Alyssa quipped. "Never gets old. Well, let's get to it then. Vic, set up nav points at all three bases and put gamma at dust off."

"No problem, LT." Victor replied, working with his topography scans of the region and the mako's navigation systems. Morgan, meanwhile, gunned the motor, bringing up the mako to maximum speed in short order. The vehicle's extremely long suspension absorbed most of the buffeting caused by the uneven, unpaved terrain, but there was still slight bouncing in the cockpit. The meaty tires hugged the ground and pushed off to accelerate the mako straight ahead. They approached the first base within a few minutes, which impressed Damien considering the distance and maximum speed of the mako over such harsh terrain.

A single prefabricated building, much larger than the trailers Damien saw at Therum, sat alone in the otherwise unmarred landscape of Chasca's countryside. The trio disembarked after parking the vehicle, walking up to the front door. Alyssa held up her left fist and everyone immediately held position. She looked for evidence in the dirt of recent travel but found none. Deciding it was safe to proceed, she motioned Victor to take point and unlock the front door. He did so and the three entered the building.

Damien noticed there were many very big, very heavy boxes in the first room they entered. A few were pried open or loose, but many were appropriately secured. Alyssa held up a palm to push against his chest when he attempted to walk past her, and he turned to her, annoyed. She gave him a no-nonsense glare and silently ordered him to hold position while she and Victor proceeded to secure the next room. He sighed. _She doesn't trust me at all. I'm still new, maybe it'll take some time, but I wonder if there's anything I could possibly do to help that happen?_

The radio cackled to life a minute or two later while Damien stood around studying his surroundings. "All clear. Damien, second level's got some big boxes we need to move. Do you think you can catch them?"

_Catch them? Is she insane? Oh... Biotically._ "Let's try one, Lieutenant." Damien walked into the large room and looked up at the balcony. Some shuffling and straining could be heard up above and soon Damien spied the top of her head peeking over the side of the balcony.

Alyssa hefted the box up in her arms, but had to lean backwards considerably to balance her new center of mass and prevent creating a torque force that would surely cause her, and her package, to fall over very quickly. As her boot bumped into the short balcony wall, she lost the battle and the torque threatened to take both her and the box over the edge. She let go reflexively and cursed as it tumbled down below.

Damien immediately lifted the box with a mass-lowering field and it worked off most of its own kinetic energy, coming to a halt not even a foot from the ground. Damien quickly trotted over to the floating package, grabbing it, intending to lower it carefully to the ground to start a new pile of boxes that would have to be taken out of the prefab building. As he held it to the ground against its natural desire to float, the lift force gave out and its density returned to normal. The box wasn't moving on its own any further. With a satisfied sigh, Damien looked over the undamaged package. "Worked good, Lieutenant. So long as we do them one at a time I don't expect a problem. Oh, and nothing heavier than that one. I won't be able to slow its acceleration in time; it'll hit the floor."

"Fine." Damien's squad mates began working together to drop boxes over the side in a more controlled manner. Soon there was a considerable pile on the floor next to Damien, and they were ready to start carrying them out.

- - - - -

"So Lieutenant, not that I'm complaining, but is this really what marines typically do on a Systems Alliance frigate?" Damien questioned in-between grabbing bites of his sandwich. The trio sat on boxes outside, taking a meal break.

"It's not like we spend 100 of our time fighting bad guys in intense firefights within thirty seconds of landing on the planet... You get the boring stuff too." She replied, refusing to make eye contact, but instead studying something apparently interesting about the horizon.

Victor scoffed, swallowing before speaking his mind. "This is nice. I almost prefer it to getting shot at," he teased lightly. He got a few chuckles from the others, and each quieted to resume their own meal.

Damien studied his leader carefully. He knew she was far from ok with Elizabeth's death. She seemed to withdraw further into herself each hour they spent working here. First she was reticent, but now it was one-sentence answers, and silence. Probing as carefully as he could, he pressed, "You guys have done something like this before then, I take it?"

Alyssa did not answer. She wrapped up the leftovers of her meal—her appetite apparently lacking—and stowed it away for later recycling. Victor leaned in close to whisper to me, "Close enough. I think you should drop it—before it gets uncomfortable for her."

Alyssa was studying the horizon. It was as uninterrupted as ever, but her mind desperately sought any escape it could find from remembering meals like this one—with Elizabeth still around, talking about her family, keeping everyone's mood light and happy despite the hard manual labor. She quickly shoved such painful memories from her mind, focusing on the horizon, looking for that small dot that might grow into an incoming vehicle. It never came.

The others finished and she could once again focus on activity, keeping busy to keep away everything that threatened to boil out of her. At the same time, all she wanted to do was to find a secret corner somewhere and stop everything, break down, cease to function. What would she have to do to find release? Nothing seemed to work.

Damien carried the final box. He'd lightened it a little so his corona was still lapping around him in the breeze. With some careful adjustments to nearby boxes, Victor made room and took the package. Damien let it grow heavier soon as it was in place. Alyssa had wondered a ways off by herself, kicking a stone as she wandered. Given an opportunity, he pressed Victor privately. "Victor, she's becoming isolated."

"What are you expecting?" Victor asked him critically. "She's just dealing with the loss of her best friend!"

"I realize that!" Damien retorted. "I'm just—aren't you worried about her?"

"Of course I am," He growled. "But you're not helping with your not-so-subtle inquiries into their past."

Damien defended himself, "I'm doing the best I can! It's hard when you've got bits and pieces. I came a little late to the game to be playing the helpful friend."

"Maybe you should stop trying then." Victor's edges hardened as he set his jaw. "Give her space."

"I can't side by the side and do nothing." Damien replied testily. "Help me."

Victor's brow furrowed. "You're impossible. You always this determined to get into things that are not your business in the slightest??"

Damien's snarky reply got caught in his throat. _Maybe he's got a point there—it's not like she considers me a friend, yet. I'm too new. I'm just some colleague; casual acquaintance._ "But—it's not like that, Vic." Damien breathed out, defeated. "I—don't want her to suffer. I want to help and it's so frustrating because it feels like the more I push her to open up, the more she withdraws from me."

"Trust me, you've spied the 10 of the iceberg that's above the surface. What you don't know is the other 90 that's below the surface. You keep pushing this, you'll wreak."

"What do you mean?"

Victor studied his new squad mate. "Look—" he sighed. "Alyssa didn't have a fun childhood."

"She told me her family was unhappy," Damien pointed out. "I don't know why or any specifics, but that night in the infirmary, we were talking before you interrupted."

"Then you know almost as much as I do," Victor answered. "One thing I've learned about Lieutenant Morgan is you can't push her to open up to you. She clams up tighter than a welded bulkhead. You'd be better off talking to the bulkhead, anyway. The only person I've seen her open up to was Yates. They were best friends and the only person Alyssa trusted her inner struggles with. You're not going to reach that level of trust in just a few days and a single late-night conversation."

"Sounds like she's at risk of never opening up to anyone ever again. Think about it," Damien warned, "She's lost the last person she was close to. Think she's ever going to want to go through that again? She might just withdraw completely."

"We could lose her," Victor stated, peering around the edge of the mako to find her form, still retreating, getting smaller as she walked slowly. "I don't know what to do about it, Damien. What do you want me to do?" He asked, exacerbated.

"We'd better think of something." Damien finished. "Can I count on you to help me?"

Victor turned back to Damien, staring him straight in the eye. "Anything to help her." He intoned soberly. He remembered all the times she'd brought her squad back safely, saving his life in the process. "Anything at all."

- - - - -

"We're finished, Lieutenant. _Bunker Hill_ should be here in fifteen."

Her peace shattered, Alyssa Morgan was annoyed almost enough to refuse to acknowledge the radio transmission. "Good." She snapped, letting go of the transmit button so quickly she barely had time to finish the word. She sighed. "Nothing's good."

The rock she'd been kicking in front of her as she walked bounced away to her right, off her path. _Betrayal,_ she eyed it with a death glare. _Wants to leave me._ Without a second thought, the shotgun was pulled from her back and expanded to fighting form, trained on the rock. She stopped in her tracks, everything so quiet she could hear her own breathing as the weapon continued to remain steadfastly aimed at her former companion. _You can't leave me unless I tell you! The hell am I doing, talking to a rock. _Suddenly a memory shot through her—darkness, laying in the med lab.

_She was replying to something he'd said. "Sounds like something a schizophrenic would use to cope."_

_She could hear Damien chuckle quietly. "Maybe I am a little crazy."_

_Maybe I am, too_, Alyssa would have laughed if it hadn't hit so close to home. She collapsed the shotgun and restored it to its place on her back. Walking over to the rock, she picked up the offending object, feeling the smooth surface with her hand as she turned it end for end. Grasping it tightly, she wound back and threw it forward as hard as she could, letting herself scream out in frustration as it left her hand and sailed through the air, landing so far away she could no longer tell it from the other small rocks near its landing site. _It's gone forever._

She turned her back and set a course back for the mako. She had a good sense of direction thanks to her training in the marines. She wasn't sure how far away it was, but she figured she'd have to hurry to make it back by the time the _Bunker Hill_ set down on the surface. When she spied the mako, she groaned. The _Bunker Hill_ was approaching from the west and she was still some distance from the vehicle. There was no way she'd make that distance in time. She kept her quickened pace anyway, hoping she wouldn't get chewed out for leaving her squad behind as she took some time for herself.

When she arrived, the _Bunker Hill_ had set down on the surface but the mako had not moved. Instead, she heard an alarm broadcast over the external hull of the vessel—it was the discharge warning. A few moments later, lightning began to jump between the _Bunker Hill_ and the surface of the planet, snapping and crackling, making a great deal of noise.

It was finished and the alarm subsided as she arrived at the mako. Victor nodded from the cockpit and silently backed the vehicle up the ramp into the cargo hold. She entered on foot, noticing the Captain standing at ease, watching her approach. She walked right up to her CO.

"Captain," She acknowledged. "Mission accomplished. No unusual contacts."

Reed smiled warmly. "Good work, Lieutenant. Your squad is off-duty effective immediately. Get a shower, freshen up, rehydrate, whatever you need to do."

"Very kind, Captain." Morgan replied, finding holding eye contact unnaturally difficult. Soon as she was dismissed, the three walked together towards the communal showers. After that, they broke apart. Alyssa sought seclusion until her time in the mess hall for dinner rolled around. Victor grabbed his deck of cards and headed for the mess hall. Damien, meanwhile, went straight to engineering.

Gabrielle noticed him entering immediately. She excused herself and wondered over, making eye contact and giving him a big grin. He seemed subdued, but then again, that seemed to be normal for Damien. "Hi," She greeted him warmly.

Damien welcomed her lighthearted countenance. There'd been far too many serious looks between himself and Victor since their talk. "Hi," He returned. "I love the atmosphere here. Beats working on Chasca."

"No sweat," Gabrielle joked. "How did it go?"

"Oh, fine." Damien stated encouragingly. "Really no other way it could go. I wouldn't say it was tensionless, but the work got done easily enough."

"Well, that's good, but what about you and Lieutenant Morgan?"

"What about us?" Damien asked, slightly defensive. "Sorry. Yeah, that would be the tension I was speaking about. She seemed to really miss Elizabeth Yates. Me being the replacement, well, let's just say she wasn't thrilled about the mission."

"Hopefully she'll get over it," Gabrielle dismissed his concerns. "Two and a half days, anything interesting at all happen while we were gone?"

"Nope. How about you?"

"No more falling off of ladders," She stated thankfully. "And no geth in this cluster, apparently. Captain Reed sent a message off to Arcturus. I think the brass might be planning on moving a fleet here to set up a staging grounds against the Perseus Veil."

"What makes you think that?" he inquired.

"You don't clear out an entire star cluster near geth territory for no reason," Gabrielle answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "They're doing something, you can count on that."

"I'll take your word for it," Damien replied, eyes drifting from her face to the core spinning in the background. "Discharging the core—that was something else. I got to see the lightning as it shot between the ship and the ground. Looked deadly, and was so bright I had to look away for a bit."

"A by-product of an eezo core." Gabrielle replied. "We can even induce 'northern lights' by discharging the ship's buildup into the magnetic field of a planet from up above. You should see a dreadnought do that sometime—it's beautiful, the colors and the extent of the lights."

"Being an engineer doesn't ruin your perception of the beauty in FTL flight," Damien observed, surprised. "I'm glad I was wrong."

"What?" She asked, curious. "Why would you say that?"

"Well, one day I was thinking about what you must see when you see the Tantalus core. I know next to nothing about it; all I can see is the beauty of its operation. You see all the parts working together to achieve an effect. I was wondering to myself, if that knowledge got in the way of seeing what I could see."

She smiled, turned and sighed, looking at her engine as it spun. "No, of course not." She replied. "It was the first thing I saw."

Damien nodded, although she couldn't see it as she looked ahead at the engine with him. "Well, thanks for setting me straight."

"So, want to get together at mess?" She asked casually. "We can talk more then."

"I'll keep an eye out," Damien promised. He turned to leave.

"Damien?"

He turned back. "Yeah?"

She was facing him again. "Just hang in there. Alyssa can be a hard person to be around, but you just got to keep trying. She'll warm up eventually."

Damien smiled. _I don't think you know what's going on with her, but ok, point taken._ "Sure. Thanks." He turned and left as Gabrielle resumed her duties.

- - - - -

Alyssa was not present at mess, Damien determined. Gabrielle was, however, so he took a seat next to her. Breaking out the silverware, he greeted her once again and they each worked on their meals for a short time before starting up a conversation.

"I have to admit, I'm worried about Lieutenant Morgan," he started. "Even with what you've said, what Victor's said, I think she needs some help. She lost her best friend."

Gabrielle was momentarily put off balance by the remark, but she recovered before he noticed. "Yes, I'm worried too," She stated, somewhat uncomfortable with the topic.

"A person in her position, well, it's dangerous." He remarked. "And I don't see anyone reaching out to pull her back from the precipice."

"The precipice?"

"It's a long way down," Damien explained. "Before you hit rock bottom. And it can be hard to climb back out. Better to not go there."

"I understand," She forked a mouthful so she wouldn't have to continue to fill the conversation.

"I don't," Damien shrugged, swallowing saliva uncomfortably. "I honestly have no idea what's it's like to be in her position. That's what worries me the most—if it's up to me to pull her away, how will I know the first thing about how to do it?"

Gabrielle let her fork fall on her plate. Her own appetite was shrinking the more they talked. She felt a little guilty about her laissez-faire attitude about Alyssa Morgan's suffering. Still, she personally had almost zero connection to the girl and wasn't sure why Damien was suddenly so obsessed with helping her. Perhaps he'd seen something on Chasca. Knowing of her closed off nature, Gabrielle couldn't imagine what she'd let him see. _But it's not important anyway. I should try to help him, help her, somehow. _"What do you _want_ to do?"

"Hah. Good question." Damien laughed. "I have no idea."

"Confront her?"

"I don't think so. Victor warned me she'll close herself off. Won't help any."

"Comfort her?"

"Maybe, but how?" Damien gave her a perplexed look. "She's not going to accept it unless I get past her defenses somehow—become a friend."

"Well I guess that's your first step, then." Gabrielle offered. "Right?"

"Right." Damien considered it a moment, shrugged, and resumed eating. "Thanks Gabrielle. I'm sorry to lay this on you like I have. It's just that I need help."

"You can count on me, Damien." She replied.

"Thanks." He smiled at her, a little playfully. "So, not to abruptly change the subject, but this is quite possibly the first dinner date I've had in... oh, months. Can you tell I'm a little rusty?"

She laughed. "Mhmm. Well, I think we can fix that. Just takes practice."

"Offering your services?" he questioned, a glimmer in his eye a smile hinting at the corner of his mouth.

"Sure," She answered. "I'll _endure_ a few more meals with you." She smirked.

"Good, I'd be helpless without you." Damien admitted easily, feeling no need to defend his pride with her. "Can I say, the table privacy is a little... lacking." He gestured to the other off-duty crewmembers.

Gabrielle giggled quietly. "Yeah, ask the maitre d' for a table for two next time."

"You done eating?"

Gabrielle glanced at all the good food left on her plate. Reluctantly, she let it go. "Yeah."

"Good. Grab your plate and follow me." Damien turned in his own emptied plate for cleaning, as did Gabrielle. He took her down the elevator to the mako bay, rummaged in a locker for a moment, and grabbed a small ball. He tossed it over to her.

"Can you hit me with that?" He asked, deadpan serious.

She studied Damien carefully. She could tell she was being set up for something. "I suppose," She offered, deciding she was already trapped regardless of what she said.

"Go ahead, just like playing dodge ball." He relaxed his stance so it would be more difficult to sidestep and avoid anything coming towards him. Gabrielle gave him a funny look, uncertain what he was playing at. "Come on," he offered, "The first shot's free."

"R-r-i-i-g-h-t." She drew out the word, plainly suspicious. She attempted to fake him out with a sudden throw while she wasn't looking in his direction. Damien held out a hand, letting his corona shine, and the ball stopped in midair, shockingly frozen. A surprised breath caught in her throat.

Damien smiled. "Oh for one." He stated, still holding a deadpan tone that brokered no bragging. "Retaliation to commence," he warned. The corona flared then, more brilliant than before. A fist punched in the direction of Gabrielle and the midair frozen ball. It flew back the way it'd come, and Gabrielle felt the force he'd used on the ball pushing her back even from her distance. The ball whizzed past, too quickly for her to catch, and hit the elevator door, bouncing off. She turned, surprised, and went to retrieve it.

Soon as she reached its position, it began to levitate, floating up to her height and beyond. She grabbed at it before it could sneak past the height she could reach. It felt impossibly light—a lot lighter than when she'd held it before. Suddenly, it seemed to get heavier.

"Wow," She offered, amazed. "That's some talent."

Damien smiled happily. "I enjoy it," He stated. "Ready? Throw it at me again. Count of three. One." He raised a hand towards her. "Two." The corona was now as bright as he could make it. "Three." She threw it straight at him, but suddenly a shining distortion of light appeared above the parabola of its arc, catching the ball in a singularity's gravity well and causing it to whip around, entering an unstable orbit. It went around almost six times before breaking free and slamming down into the floor.

Damien let the singularity disintegrate, using new, briefly existing, and micro-singularities to attract it back to him. Soon as it was back in his hand, he tossed it and froze it at the apex of its journey. Gabrielle and Damien both closed underneath it.

"You should take this on the road, you could make a killing," She stated.

A minor perturbation marred his countenance briefly. "No thanks." He sighed. "I have no reason to further isolate myself from everyone else."

"Sorry," She replied, "I didn't mean—"

"It's alright." he interjected. "I should explain, biotics is a double-edged sword. On one hand you have mind powers, which is frankly very superhero. On the other hand, you have a lot of distrust among other people. They're worried you're out to hurt them. That you could go nuts, like so many L2 biotics. A second away from a rampage no one can stop. It makes it hard to be accepted fully into society. We're a fringe group."

"Of course," She stated. They stood directly in front of each other now. The ball fell suddenly, and Damien reached out and grabbed it as it fell beside them.

"I'm curious—are you afraid?" Damien asked pointedly.

Gabrielle didn't flinch in the slightest with her response. "Of course not."

Damien turned away then, strolling an imaginary, wandering path only he could see. Gabrielle watched his slow movements, confused at what was really bothering him. His biotic corona faded away as he occasionally glanced in her direction, seeming to be seeking an elusive auditory voice for his thoughts. "I'm glad." He stated, but it didn't say everything he was trying to say, or anything at all, really.

"What is it?" Gabrielle asked patiently.

Their eyes connected and Damien stopped walking, frozen. He broke the contact and cleared his throat. "Gabrielle, I know we're new friends. I know so little about you. And I want to know more—a lot more. I want to know if there—if there might be—something between us."

She smiled and let go of the breath she had not known she'd been holding. If Damien sensed it too—then it was her greatest wish granted. "I feel the same way, Damien. And we can fix that first problem right now. What do you want to know about me? Anything at all, just ask." She made a promise to herself even as she spoke to answer any question he could come up with, no matter how difficult.

"I—I barely know where to begin," Damien stammered. "I wasn't sure what I expected to hear but it's like I'm ad libbing a live extranet feed. Daunting. Confusing. Frightening."

She giggled. "You don't have to _frightened._ You're the madman with the mind powers."

"Suppose I am," Damien admitted, "But it still feels like you have all the power, right now."

Her smile faltered a little. "What do you want to know?" She pressed.

Damien looked in her eyes and worried he would lose himself in the dark pools rimmed with green. _Pull it together! Now!_ "Well, I suppose I can start with something easy. Simple. Your family. Tell me about your family."

"Will you tell me about yours if I do?" She asked. Upon receiving an affirmative nod, she began. "My parents live in the Terra Nova colony. They'd been adamant about exploring space together as a family. It was their dream. My mother Maria, met my father Peter when they both were signing up as volunteers to colonize Terra Nova back when it was first proposed. They took a near-instant liking of each other and dated for a while, until they got the news. My dad's request was rejected while my mom made the cut. My dad thinks there's a conspiracy to favor women. Although it isn't technically legal, I also think the companies behind any colonization effort push for females more than males. After all, new families building lives in their colony makes them money. It only makes economic sense that they'd take a woman over a man. Still, there's no proof and it's kept subtle enough they don't get into trouble for discrimination. Anyway, my mother was heartbroken. She didn't want to break up with my dad, but she was going to Terra Nova in a very short few months. Then she got this idea in her head. She actually went to my dad and point-blank suggested that they get married right away. She said that way they could still be together on Terra Nova, and if it didn't work out for any reason, they could agree to an amicable divorce."

Gabrielle paused, smiling as she recalled the tales her parents had told her of their unusual romance. "My mother is very direct. Dad always says he loves that about her."

Damien was raptured by her story. Eagerly, he asked, "So what happened? He accepted, I take it?"

"Yes, they got married and went to Terra Nova together, buying some property and starting to build a new life together. And even though things were a little rushed in the beginning they really fell in love while they were married. A year and a half after they came to the colony they started a family with my big brother Chase. Then I came almost two years later."

"Incredible." Damien replied. "It's somewhat like the story of my own parents, although they were already married when they decided they wanted to go to Elysium. I was born, only child, during the trip. Spent most of my life on Elysium."

"Tell me about them," Gabrielle politely encouraged him. "What are their names?"

"Oh, uh. My biological parents are named Christian and Rebecca Warden."

"Warden? But your name is—"

"Cross. I know. My parents and I caught the authority's attention and their subsequent investigation turned up my parent's illegal activities back on Earth, so they were sentenced to prison. The rest of the Warden extended family lived on Earth and didn't want me, so I was placed into Elysium's social services before I even reached four months old. After entering the system it took almost five years before I was adopted. A lot of potential adopting families simply weren't capable or were unwilling to adopt a biotic child, even though I was really young—they always say babies are in high demand compared to older children, especially teenagers. As waits go, four to five years is a bit long for toddlers and younger, but I'm lucky David and Abigail saw past the liability. They always did their best for me and I'm proud to be a part of their family. I don't even think of my biological parents as parents. I don't remember them at all."

"What did your biological parents do?" Gabrielle wondered, amazed.

Damien glanced warily at his companion. This was dangerously close to a topic he'd rather not discuss. However, she had given him the opportunity to ask anything, and he had to prove he could do likewise. Privately, he wondered what the odds were that she would be sufficiently weirded out to back off from an intimate relationship. He didn't like his answer. Sighing, he worked up his courage as best as he could. He answered quickly, barely spacing the words apart, "They did an illegal genetic engineering experiment on me."

"A _what_? On you? On their baby?"

"Yes," Damien visibly shaken by the outburst despite his efforts to conceal his discomfort. He shuffled his feet, then turned away from Gabrielle in a sudden motion born of frustration. He continued, "They were crazy, they had no inhibitions about it." Damien added an afterthought, "You can't tell anyone. I don't want anyone to know."

"What did they do to you?"

"This stays between us, I really mean it."

"Yeah, yeah," she brushed off his wary attitude with impatience.

"They tried to add an ability to a human. Which of course goes against genetic engineering laws—we can increase natural abilities but adding new ones is a big no-no. As is combining DNA of different sentient species. They did both with the same experiment. The end product was me."

"Damien, I'm sorry. It must be very difficult for you to talk about it. I'm here for you."

Damien nodded, giving a grunt of agreement. "Uh huh." He met her eyes. "Well, that part notwithstanding, I had a good, mostly-normal childhood as a Cross. My parents accepted me as their own son. Later, when I was older, I found out that they couldn't have children and that's why they adopted me. Still, they never regretted it, not even for a moment. Nor do I; I love them."

Gabrielle smiled warmly. "I'm so glad."

- - - - -


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"Range to target, Seventeen kilometers and closing," Corman Wells barked.

Ashley Reed watched the holographics carefully. The formation was breaking apart in yet another imperfect run. "Scramble Seven!" She yelled out into her radio systems. Instantly the pilots of each ship heard and responded with alacrity. The frigates broke off their bombing run. Ashley, quite unhappy, stated, "Mrs. Knight, you need to stay with formation. _Dunbar_, you need to tighten up on _Sterling Bridge's_ flank. Attack runs like this only work when you go all-in, people. Timidity will not win any battles. Keep that in mind and give me 100 percent!" She studied the holographics, watching her scattered flotilla. "All ships reform on the _Yorktown_. Mr. Dunham, take us back to alpha and let's do it again."

"We'll get it this time," Wells reassured her.

Reed smiled, glancing down from her perch to where he was standing at one of the CIC consoles. "Mr. Wells, friend or not, I'm not looking for empty promises."

"As your XO, Captain, it's no empty promise, I assure you," He replied, smiling. "As a friend, it looks like you're getting a bit overly tense. Don't stress about it."

"Right," She sighed audibly. "Mrs. Knight, whenever you're ready," She waited impatiently.

"Right away, Captain," Larissa Knight replied, grating her teeth against her CO's harsh tone. "We're in formation."

"All pilots, execute attack gamma, count three. Three. Two. One. Go, Go, Go!" The six vessels abruptly banked in formation, turning towards their target once again. The formation continued to tighten as they approached their common target at their best possible accelerations. Reed clamped her teeth together, anticipating the next order.

"Range to target, Twenty kilometers and closing," Wells barked once again.

"Fire! Scramble Seven!" Reed ordered. She watched as each frigate fired a high-velocity projectile, using their ship's own velocity to further increase that of the projectile. The six projectiles converged less than a second after firing, slamming into the derelict freighter and breaking its back, causing it to split into two separate husks. Each vessel took a different course change based on their position in the formation so that there was plenty of maneuvering room for each to avoid colliding with the debris or with each other.

"Textbook," Corman Wells announced. "Good work, people! Captain, excellent run."

Reed studied the dispersion of her flotilla a few seconds longer before replying. "It'll work," She replied snarkily. Over the radio, she ordered, "All ships, on my wing. Formation beta-six."

- - - - -

Damien grunted under exertion. His mind rebelled against the pain, reminding him yet again that if this were a real battle, he would be using biotics to defend himself by now, instead of letting Alyssa Morgan beat him to an ever-living pulp. Before he was able to stop it, the corona flared around him, ready to call down whatever biotic ability he judged would save him.

But that wasn't the way this game worked. He wasn't allowed to use biotics. If he was, he was fairly certain it would be over inside of ten seconds. Instead, it felt like hours of constant abuse. Warily, Damien twisted away from Alyssa's grasp, barely escaping in time. Biotics made him a little overconfident, maybe, but Damien still disliked the entire idea of the hand-to-hand combat training; mostly, because he was sucking at it.

Alyssa seemed constantly poised and mostly in control during their matches. Sometimes her eyes went hard with searing anger, surprising him, making him worry. She always used it to her advantage, quickly advancing and incapacitating him before he could escape their fiery stare. Today, banner day that it was, he'd managed to keep himself from hesitating, avoiding capture. The two circled, continuing to press intermittent attacks, all of which were quickly parried. It seemed both of them needed a chance to catch their breath.

Alyssa watched Civvy carefully. It seemed he was a little more confident today, but she could tell he had a long way to go. She could tell he was more winded than she was. This battle was almost over, and like a chess player, Alyssa already saw every move to the end of the round. This is when she got the most upset. When it seemed hopeless, like Damien would never manage to catch up. When her efforts at training him seemed wasted.

She wasn't intending to attack so ferociously. But as her anger spilt out in a flurry of sudden moves, Alyssa disabled him, knocked him to the ground, and wedged her thin-training-shoe-covered left foot right under his throat, brushing against his adam's apple. A simple movement, and she could crush his neck. This was not how she was supposed to train with him. Surprised at herself, she pulled away quickly, but didn't apologize. She never apologized anymore.

Damien slowly sat back up from his supine position, eying her carefully. He was shaken; for a moment he could see malice so deep in her eyes he worried she would really kill him, right here, right now. His corona had appeared again. He had almost needed it.

He didn't let the energy fade away. He kept it up, like a weapon. Like a shield. Like body armor. His defense to protect him from anything that would do him harm. Right now, he was utterly convinced he would need it.

Alyssa motioned him back up on his feet. "Marginal improvements, Civvy." She pointed out, unimpressed. "Got to do better than that if you want to beat me."

"No offense, Lieutenant, but I'm not here to fight hand-to-hand combat." Damien grumbled. "What I really need is more biotic training. I'm trying to do it all myself but I'm hardly a master at it. There's so much more in me than I can access. I can feel it."

Alyssa shook her head left to right and back again. "You can't count on biotics as your sole defense, Civvy. Everything has a counter, a balance. Unless you're skilled diversely, _you_ can be countered, trapped, surprised. Adaptation is key to combat."

"I know," Damien admitted. "I'm just a little discouraged. Seems I'll never get up to your level."

Alyssa smiled to herself vindictively. _Perhaps you won't._ She pushed her traitorous thought away. _What's wrong with you? You _want_ him to fail?_ "Again."

Damien's body was already in pain and protesting quite loudly. He could already tell today would be another visit to the med bay—the fifth time this week. He thought about pointing it out, but it hardly seemed to matter. _No pain no gain, buddy. Rally up!_

Assuming a defensive posture, Damien let Alyssa approach and make the first move. He'd been studying her as best as he could while keeping himself out of harm's way, and most of the time when he did this, Alyssa would open up with the same series of punches. He hoped, this time, anticipation would lend him the upper hand quickly enough to defeat her before he added more bruises to his collection.

She met his expectations. With a fluid parry, Damien closed the distance even further and quickly threw a punch while her attack left her vulnerable. His fist actually collided right on her right cheek, spinning her around before she caught herself._ Ow!_ The simultaneous thought passed through both their minds. They separated, disengaged. "You alright, LT?" Damien asked, rubbing his fist. "Sorry about that."

"I'm fine," Alyssa retorted angrily, tenderly touching her own flesh. "We're done for today." She turned around and headed straight for the shower room in a cloud of thinly-veiled hostility. Several crewman gave her a wide berth before crossing her path.

Damien sighed. Fifth time he'd made her upset, too. So far, the 'make friends' approach was working about as well as a lackluster ion drive would during a spaceborne battle. Alyssa rebuffed every effort and his fear of her own forced isolation was quickly becoming a reality. Privately, Damien was considering bringing it up to Commander Wells. He couldn't imagine it improving anything, however. More likely, there would be a confrontation of some kind that would only end up hurting Morgan's career. Or so he expected, anyway.

Damien began to practice his biotics on his own. Still feeling discouraged despite landing a solid blow in the last battle, he decided on a whim to press himself. He'd been practicing with precision lately and gotten quite good at making precise mass effect fields. Today was a day for raw power.

Before he began, however, Damien looked around his training area. He was still in a mako bay. He noticed loose objects on tables and shelves. _If I go for raw power, I'm going to end up stuck with some kind of tool embedded in my stomach. I need a bigger area. With less potential flying projectiles. Unless... I used my armor and its kinetic barrier! Genius! Just make it fast, while no one else is around to get hurt. Shouldn't be anyone in here to attend to the mako for another hour yet, anyway._

Damien headed for his locker and suited up, activating full combat potential as soon as it was secured to his person. Then, he targeted a large, powerful singularity in one corner of the bay, furthest from any lose objects.

The singularity formed as the corona happily danced up his outstretched arm. He could feel the mass effect field he created, even from his distance, affecting him perceptibly. He smiled, then watched as the nearest objects to the singularity suddenly leapt from their resting places and flung themselves straight into the heart of it all, passing through with immense speed out the other side, and instantly hitting a wall hard enough the sound reverberated throughout the room. Damien relaxed the field and lightened all the objects that clattered to the ground in the corner. He tried to make them as massless as possible. They ascended with considerable acceleration until they suddenly ran into the ceiling, unable to ascend further.

"I can do more," Damien told himself. "I'm still holding back. I need to train somewhere else."_ Or... I need to train with some_thing_ else._ And as the implements regained their mass and fell to the ground, Damien turned and looked at the mako unmoving beside him. He smiled. _This will be fun._

He took a few steadying breaths and let his full biotic potential build within his body. He took one look at the hulking armored personnel carrier before closing his eyes again. _Now!_ His eyes shot open and he raised an open palm as his arm extended in the mako's direction. The mass effect field flowed through his element zero nodules like a torrential flash flood through a narrow gully. It worked its way momentarily through his entire body before leaving it behind and racing out to greet its target.

The mako ascended a few inches off the ground before a sudden snapping sound cut through the air. Damien noticed the catapult had been reconnected to the mako, the thick metal cabling easily holding it down even though it wished to ascend higher. The snap, Damien decided, came from the metal cabling protesting the fact it had been reoriented more vertically when it was meant to sling the vehicle horizontally. Still, it was undamaged for its great audible protest. Damien wondered how long he could keep the vehicle there, and how high it would have gone without the tether.

His arm began to feel warm, followed by the rest of his body. He recognized biotic fatigue was once again returning. So much as he'd rather not feel the burning sensation, however, today he would not allow it to stop him. Not until he saw, with his own two eyes, the extent of the reserves currently settled within him. He had to know.

Next came the more incessant burning sensation. This is when he'd always stopped before. Even on Therum, after this point, it was time to wait and recharge. What happened when he pushed past this? Would he find a second wind waiting to take him even further?

Seconds, minutes, hours, it felt to Damien like days later while the burning continued to increase its painful effect throughout his body. His heart was racing, the blood racing past his ears filled his hearing with a dull roar. He felt his muscles, of all things, protesting themselves. He was cramping up. His arm was only half extended now because pain prevented him from keeping it straight.

A dull thud broke past the risen noise floor as the mako settled back down on its wheels. With a startled cry, Damien felt every muscle cramp at once. He fell to the floor, laying on his side in the fetal position. He gasped air greedily but it never seemed to be enough. He was drowning and he couldn't move, couldn't swim to the surface.

"Wwhhatt the heelllppp," Damien's voice was slurred. He noticed one mako had become two largely occupying the same space, but not entirely. He groaned, blinking, trying to restore his sight. Mild vertigo combined with the cramping pains to utterly decimate Damien's senses. He felt horrible, and more than a little helpless.

The vertigo began to subside. The double vision disappeared and his pained groans seemed more articulate, indicating his speech had returned to normal. He looked up at the mako quite annoyed at himself and at the inanimate object, as if it had something to do with his situation. The cramping was much slower at dissipating, but progress was being made. Damien coughed and spat out phlegm on the floor, noticing it was bloody. He turned his head to look directly underneath his nose and confirmed it was currently bleeding.

_What a pleasant experience this was, Damien. Second wind my ass. You nearly killed yourself._ As the last cramping gave away, Damien pushed himself up to a sitting position, wiping the blood from his face with one hand. _I need to clean this up before someone sees it._

With considerable care, Damien got to his feet and struck off for the nearest head to get what he would need. It took him several minutes to finish the task to his satisfaction, but by the time the floor and his face were cleaned, the crewman had arrived to work on the mako. Damien gave him a silent nod as he headed for the elevator, for once extremely glad it was there to carry him up a floor.

He headed directly for Doctor Roberts to get checked out and get some pain killers for all the bruising and soreness. She gave him a once over, commenting that he appeared lighter than usual. Damien told her he'd overexerted himself lifting the mako, but did not mention how severely he had done so. "Is it possible to kill yourself pressing your biotics?" Damien asked, more hoping to inspire some medical talk about overexertion than to actually find out if biotics were deadly. He was fairly certain even if they were he would never be able to push himself hard enough, long enough to end up committing suicide. His body just shut down before he'd have the chance.

"No," Came the expected reply. Doctor Roberts explained, "A biotic's body is adapted to the eezo nodules as if it were an entire additional, distinct system of a normal body. It's controlled by the biotic's mind, it takes energy from metabolizing the body's ATP and glucose, and in case of overuse, the body kicks in what basically amounts to a circuit breaker that stops the biotics when they threaten the body's well-being as a whole. That's why you feel like you're on fire. Your body is complaining about the abuse. Eventually, it just has to stop. You should always stop before that happens, though, while it's still just the manageable pain of heat. I've heard biotics who press themselves past that mark get really messed up for a bit while their bodies try to recover."

"Yeah, no doubt." Damien replied, reminded of his unpleasant experience. "Still, I lifted the mako, I'm pretty impressed."

"So am I," Doctor Roberts ribbed him. "You don't see any marines bench-pressing thousands of kilograms of machinery and metal."

"Suppose not," Damien quipped back. "Thanks for the pills. One of these days I'm going to escape a training lesson without so much punishment." He gave rueful grin that had Roberts laughing.

"That'll be the day. Keep up with it, Damien, and you'll get there."

"Thanks, Doctor." He replied, genuinely thankful for the vote of confidence when his own was wavering. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." The two separated at the sleeper pods. Damien noticed other pods already filled and wondered if Gabrielle was already asleep. Unfortunately, it was impossible to tell with the privacy mode engaged. He decided to just get in his own bed before he collapsed.

- - - - -

Nodacrux looked like an extremely pleasant world, even compared to Chasca. From what Damien had learned during his briefing, however, the deadly pollen and heavy thunderstorm and wildfire activity made colonization of this otherwise idyllic world inconceivable. Despite the fact he had to wear his armor completely isolated from the outside atmosphere, the temperature was nice and the gravity was just a touch light.

It made an excellent training ground for Alyssa and her team. The three were practicing surface maneuvers with Damien again, making certain to expose him to every aspect of a military operation on the ground. Damien was also learning how to operate the controls, both for the turret and for driving, although it would be a while before he really could excel at either. Privately, Damien had already set his mind on mastering driving, especially up the sheer rock faces presented by the mountainous Nodacrux surface.

Right now, however, Damien had an opportunity to practice his biotics without restraint. He'd been working for some time with some of the most powerful mass effect fields he could create before overexertion set in. He stopped and allowed himself to rest. The mako would be returning to the ship soon, but he had no desire to push himself too hard, especially in an inhospitable environment. The drive core should be fully discharged by now, meaning Gabrielle was probably doing busy work while waiting for the order to secure for takeoff.

The flotilla had secured the entire cluster at this point, now it was more simply watching the mass relays for activity. Damien privately wondered what the System Alliance's next step would be now that they'd completed their mission. He tried to push himself as hard as he could, worried he wouldn't be prepared if the next step was taking actions against the geth. He still remembered the cold feeling of being shot and having the blood seep away from him. If it wasn't for Liara and the others, he would be dead.

Victor watched Damien's biotic glow sheath him in unnatural light. Yesterday, Alyssa had quipped in private that she hated it when Damien's biotics made themselves manifest on his person. She thought it was disconcerting and out-of-place, something no human should be capable of doing. Right now, watching him from a few meters behind, Victor had to reluctantly agree. Privately, he was actually a little jealous of Damien's abilities. He seemed to access them so effortlessly and invoke great power with nothing more than a thought and a flick of the wrist.

As much as his attention was on Alyssa, however, Victor had begun to see Damien accept training more readily of late. It was almost as if he'd changed his mind about the marines. Curious to know for certain, he questioned the civilian. "So Damien, I've noticed you're taking your training very seriously."

"Yeah," Damien shrugged. It seemed a pretty obvious thing to notice.

"Have you changed your mind or something? About the marines..."

Damien shook his helmeted head side to side vigorously. "No. I have no interest in becoming a full-fledged marine. I'm just here to help protect people from those who would harm them."

"That's what a marine does," Victor pointed out. "I'm not trying to upset you, or force the marines on you, I just want to understand where you're coming from."

"Marines," Damien paused. He wasn't sure, now that he'd been asked. "Well, on Elysium it was easy to involve myself in the nonviolent aspects of protecting people. I was only 15 during the Skyllian Blitz and while it was awful, the things I saw, afterwards it was an intense focus on rebuilding. Then when I joined Witness Protection, I kept people safe so they could testify and put dangerous people behind bars. There didn't seem to be a real need for me to pick up a gun and solve my problems with violence."

He paused again, trying to think ahead to be coherent. He also took some time to use some biotics, applying some forces to a moderate boulder, getting it up into the air and pushing it further away from him. Finally, he resumed. "But since I've left, I've really seen marines as just ordinary people. There's nothing wrong with them. No offense, Victor, but I'd long held to the suspicion that anyone who trained in the marines was there for the violence of it. Now I realize it's not the case at all. You're protecting your families and friends and billions of humans across the galaxy. There are forces you meet which cannot be stopped with a simple talking down and trial. They come with malevolent spirits and try to harm us, but you step in the way and stop them, nothing more, nothing less. So, I'm finally realizing what it means to be a soldier for real. And it really isn't as bad as I thought. It's noble. I don't know if I'll ever be a real red-blooded marine, but I can see myself taking preventative action—_violent, life-taking_ action—if it means protecting the innocent. And I'll probably always focus more on medical training, or using biotics merely to disarm and disable, if possible. Still, I'm beginning to think I see a real place for myself in this team, and that's a good thing."

"Glad to hear it," Victor encouraged. "If you don't mind me asking—what was it like after the Blitz?"

Damien grew sober, turning just enough to shoot a brief glance at Victor before facing forward once again and resuming his biotic practice. "It was really awful. The pirates were downright crazy drunk on power and lust for money. It's like they couldn't see they were attacking other people. Our lives were immaterial to them. Commander Shepard held them off just barely. He had to give a lot of ground before he reached an area where he could hold against them. A lot of death, fires everywhere. Afterwards, every man, woman, and child in his earliteens or older got involved in rebuilding the houses, utilities, defenses. Everything about the Blitz is still very fresh if you live there. I don't like to talk about it—I don't think anyone does. Things used to be complacent but after the Skyllian Blitz things are a lot tighter. Everyone worries they'll try it again someday. Thus we all do whatever we can to secure the colony better than before."

"Sounds pretty tender," Victor replied. "Nice throw," he complimented as he watched Damien's practice.

"Thanks." Damien replied. Checking his armor's readouts, he reported, "Alright, I'm about out of tolerance here. I think we better get in the mako and head for the _Bunker Hill_ anyway." Damien turned back and walked in the opposite direction.

"Good deal. Hey Damien,"

"Yeah?" Damien turned as he stopped mid-stride, facing Victor face to face.

"Just want you to know, you're about the best pseudo-marine out there." He gave a lighthearted chuckle. "Don't worry about it, just keep training like you're training and the Lieutenant and I will make you into a useful addition to our squad yet!"

Damien smirked, but didn't quite share the humor. "Good, glad to hear it. Now let's get out of here before I die to a plant's reproductive pollen. Of all the things—"

Victor trotted alongside his companion the remaining distance to the vehicle. Alyssa was already there and together the three drove the mako up to the _Bunker Hill's_ hold. The trio piled out and began stripping gear and armor soon as the door was closed and the air circulation systems completed a full cycle of the bay.

Alyssa left the two wordlessly for the elevator up to the mess hall. Victor had to jog to catch a ride with her up a level. Damien remained behind, more interested in chatting with Gabrielle. He entered engineering, observing the activity passively for a moment, but his favorite Staff Lieutenant was no where to be seen. However, the rest of the engineers were in a flurry of activity and the Tantalus drive core seemed to be operating at peak function. Seconds later, he felt the unmistakable lurch of the frigate's thrusters, picking the vessel up and separating it from the ground. The _Bunker Hill_ accelerated into orbit and remained there for only a short time before breaking away from the planet's gravity and setting course for the mass relay where most of the flotilla was combining guard duty with practice maneuvers.

Damien left engineering and took the elevator, then the stairs up to deck one. He hadn't visited the CIC often, but the holographic galaxy map in the middle always impressed him. Captain Reed spotted her biotic crewman as he entered the CIC. Right away, she smiled. "Damien. We're expecting word from Arcturus within a few hours. How goes your adjustment to Morgan's squad?"

"Fine, Ma'am." Damien replied evenly. "What's significant about contact from Systems Alliance?"

"Glad you asked. We've already secured the cluster and sent word to the Systems Alliance. Next thing I expect to hear is what we're out here, doing this for."

"Think we'll be ordered into the Veil?" Damien asked, not comfortable with the thought of being forced into combat again, with so much training left to do.

"No, a frigate flotilla without a cruiser is pretty much worthless beyond scouting. But, if they were bringing a fleet here, you can count on being ordered into the Veil as the next step."

Internally conflicted, Damien decided to hide his feelings from the Captain. He didn't want her to distrust him, but he did wonder if he was going to be ready for real military activity._ A war,_ he realized_, and being on the front lines, to boot. You'd better hope you're up to snuff. You let them down you'll be dead._

Ashley spoke up, ordering. "Comm, inform the other ships we're on our way in, and Mrs. Knight, prepare to take us to FTL."

"Message sent, Captain." reported the comm officer from his post. "Receipt acknowledged."

"Secure for FTL." Reed ordered. "Mr. Wells, if you will."

"Certainly, Captain. Lieutenant Knight, retract thruster arms for FTL. Calculate transit mass and destination."

"Thruster arms, aye. Calculating mass and destination. Aye."

The XO continued, "Spin core for ahead standard."

"Mass effect fields are forming. Confirmed field telemetry for ahead standard."

Damien, watching with interest, walked gingerly up the ramp to the Captain's post. "Ma'am, if I may ask,"

"Certainly," Reed replied, voice subdued so no one would overhear and mistakenly think she was trying to give further orders.

"Engage thrusters ahead full." Corman spoke overtop them, oblivious.

The pilot's voice also carried. "Thrusters ahead full. Accelerating. FTL in four seconds."

Damien waited for the countdown to end before attempting to ask his question. "What did Commander Wells mean when he was talking about spinning up the core for 'ahead standard'."

Ashley nodded. "Well, ships are capable of several levels of FTL speed. Now, the exact numbers are a little unwieldy to say, like 'give me 3 and a half million kilometers a second'. Instead, we refer to speed based on how hard we use the eezo drive core. There's ahead one-half, ahead standard, ahead full, and ahead flank. Obviously, at ahead flank we use the eezo core for maximum mass-lightening fields, which takes a lot of energy and builds up the electrical charge on the hull the fastest. If you instead go with ahead one-half, you're going to be taking longer to get to your destination.

"Now, the eezo core covers the ship in a mass-lowering envelope, but as you know, we have to provide our own forward motion with normal sublight engines. At ahead standard and below, we always use the same amount of sublight thrust—approximately 80 of our maximum. When there's a call for ahead full or ahead flank, we use every bit of our maximum thrust. Most of the speed difference comes from the eezo core than what force we choose to exert via the thrusters, which is why 80 was just standardized a long time ago and left there."

"Gotcha," Damien replied, stepping back respectfully to allow the Captain to command her ship. He turned and left, heading back for deck two so he could grab some food for his hungry stomach. Judging by how much biotics he'd done on the surface of Nodacrux, and how famished he felt at the moment, he expected to need to eat his weight in food to make up for the lost carbs.

Fortunately that turned out to be a gross overexaggeration on his part, even though he did notice a few glances from other people in the mess when they noticed how much Damien was eating. He tried to ignore their surprised eyebrow raises and quiet stares. They made him a little uncomfortable, like he was a wild animal in a zoo, feeding in front of spectators. He felt like yelling at them to mind their own business, but he quashed the compulsion soon as it arose.

As Damien finally finished and was able to escape the curious glances by leaving the mess, he was surprised to find himself blindsided by none other than Gabrielle herself. "Hiya." She stated, joining him in walking towards the elevator.

Damien smiled warmly. "Hey, there you are. I went to engineering and didn't see you—speaking of which, how the hell did you know where I was?"

"Woman's intuition," She replied, a knowing smile gracing her lips. "Of course."

"Uh huh." Damien never bought it, not even for a second. "So, Captain seems to think we're getting new orders soon and we should be ready for anything."

"I _told_ you," Gabrielle stated. "We're totally going to start kicking geth ass inside of a week."

"I just hope I'm ready," Damien feared. "I don't want to have come this far, only to die on my first mission on some geth homeworld."

"Don't worry. From what you've shown me your biotics can do, I don't think they'll even see it coming."

"I appreciate that," he answered thankfully. "I'm half-excited, half-dreading the first mission against them. But I can feel it coming. It's going to happen soon."

The elevator deposited Damien and Gabrielle on deck three and as they left it behind, Gabrielle split off in a different direction. Damien turned, questioning her silently with a glance. Gabrielle explained, "Got a few engineers down with the flu. I got myself vaccinated and signed up for double shifts today. See you later."

"Alright, bye." Damien replied, watching her disappear from sight before resuming his original course. Before he got far, Alyssa intercepted him near their equipment lockers.

"Hey, Civvy." She stated.

She had been speaking less and less, so Damien was more than a little surprised she'd initiate a conversation. He recovered from his momentary surprise and greeted her as well. "Lieutenant, what's up?"

"During our training on Nodacrux I noticed you were still a little sloppy with your hand-to-hand encounters. You need to tighten up. Things get to moving fast and you won't have a chance to work on it later."

"I suppose," Damien replied, not relishing the idea of more physical training, but knowing in his heart that she was speaking the truth. "Give me a minute to change into some training clothes?"

"Sure," She replied, waiting patiently as Damien retreated. A minute later, he reemerged, clad in unadorned brown boxer shorts and an olive-colored T-shirt with "Marines" across the chest in black capital letters. Alyssa wore a similar uniform, looking more lithe and deadly than she ever did when her physique was hidden behind layers of ceramic armor. "Ok, Civvy, now I want you to press an attack on me, try to make me give up some ground—but don't neglect your defense, don't give me an opening, because I'll take it and reverse the situation in a heartbeat if you do."

Damien nodded, getting into a comfortable stance, raising his arms and fists. Alyssa did likewise, but took up a more defensive stance, encouraging her opponent to attempt to press forward against her position. Damien complied, throwing one fist followed by the other. Alyssa parried his every swing effortlessly, almost seeming to enjoy her obvious advantage.

He kept his balance, never over-extending his reach and leaving himself vulnerable, but also not making any headway. Although he could remember the techniques he'd been taught clearly and precisely, it infuriated him to no end that they seemed horribly ineffective as he tried to use them on his instructor. Either she was holding out on him, or he still had a lot to learn. He was convinced of the latter, but her elegant movements made him wonder if perhaps he could learn everything and still never compete with Alyssa's level of mastery. She seemed to take hand-to-hand fighting to a deadly art.

Damien made a mistake, then, while his mind was distracted. "Ahh!" Damien cried out with surprise as he found his arm twisted behind his back, then used to painfully shove him into a wall. Alyssa Morgan, applying her torment judiciously, was standing right behind him, both breathing heavily from exertion. Damien, with no where to move, found himself stuck in a great deal of pain, unable to break free from her iron grip. "Alright! You win!"

She didn't back down. She twisted it a little bit harder, causing him to wince. "Your enemy won't stop just because he's proven he can out-maneuver you, Civvy." She was mad. Damien hadn't seen her this angry since being appointed to her team. Even then, he could tell she had been controlling herself. But this time, right now, it was untempered, unadulterated, pure anger driving her to push harder.

"Ahrrg. Let go! What is your problem!" Damien yelled.

"You're my problem," Alyssa replied. "Just look at you. I've got you 1 minute pinned against a wall. I can't have you on my squad if you're only going to be a liability. You hear me?"

"Yeah," he grunted, still fighting against the pain of his twisted arm. "You going to let go?"

_Make me_, Alyssa thought to herself. Angrily, she released him, storming off a few meters before stopping, spinning on her heels, and yelling at him as he pushed himself off the wall. "You're nothing without your fancy brain powers!" She yelled, irate. "You're a complete waste of my time!"

Damien's eyes withdrew into slits. "Waste of time?" He scoffed. "_I_ am a waste of time?" Alyssa barely had time to register what trouble she was in before the biotic corona both lit up and a mass effect field enveloped her entire body, lightening it enough to make her buoyant in the _Bunker Hill's _air. She floated up helpless to stop herself and bounced off the ceiling roughly, remaining at that height as Damien walked up to her. "I am _not_ a waste of time." He demanded, eying her viciously. Alyssa had unintentionally hit a nerve, sparking unhappy memories of living under care of Elysium social services as a child, being passed over for adoption by most as soon as the workers explained biotics had manifested. He was young and didn't really understand why no one could give him the time of day, much less consider opening their home to him.

Things improved once he was adopted by the Cross's, but the childhood memories persisted. If there was one thing Damien couldn't stand, it was being called useless, a waste of time. As the active corona swathed his hatred in a sickly light, Alyssa was helpless to do anything from her position but return his gaze. The two stared daggers into each other's eyes for long minutes, both breathing heavy with anger.

"Put me down." Alyssa ordered.

"No." Damien retorted. "Make me." As if to reflect his resolve, the corona refreshed itself, brightening.

"I will kill you," Morgan replied with enough malice to make a krogan apprehensive.

Damien sneered. "From way up there?"

"Civvy, damn it!" She yelled. "That's it! I'm pulling you off the squad!"

"I don't care," Damien stated evenly. "You're not getting down from there. You never talk to us anymore—me, Victor, it doesn't matter who. You need to talk to someone about her. Get it off your chest."

"Like hell," She spat, futilely attempting to fight back.

"I'm serious," Damien's voice held firm. "You're not ok. It's time you admitted it. Stop pretending."

"When I get down from here I will show you who's the pretender!"

"I never claimed to be Elizabeth Yates!" Damien snapped. "I'm not trying to replace her!"

"You're a shitty excuse for a stand-in, anyway" Morgan taunted.

What remained of Damien's patience snapped in two. With a growl of rage, he let the biotic field dissipate suddenly, causing Alyssa to plummet back to the ground. Thanks to the frigate's low ceiling, it wasn't enough to permanently injure her, but she barely had time to raise her arms and land on hands and knees, rolling to try to extend the force of impact so she would not injure herself.

She got back up to her feet, slightly dazed but enraged like she'd never been before. Damien, corona lapping about him ethereally, advanced on her, throwing up a stasis field before she could retaliate. "If I have to," Damien stated in no uncertain terms, "I will keep you here until you choose to talk. I'm serious. I'm not going to take this any more. You and me, we got issues to work out—_now_."

"I have nothing to say to you," She replied, thankful the field still allowed her the use of everything above the neck.

"Then let me start us off," Damien replied. "I think you think I'm trying to replace Elizabeth. Your best friend. Someone you trusted and loved. I have news for you, Alyssa. I'm not! I don't want to take her place in your life. But she is gone now, and you have to accept that!"

"No!" Alyssa yelled, eyes welling with tears.

Damien pushed forward with his rant. "You have to let her go, and move on, because I am _sick_ and _tired_ of being punished for no other reason than I have the unfortunate luck to be assigned to your squad!"

"You're weak and pathetic!" Alyssa replied, baring her teeth slightly.

"That may be, but every day I'm throwing myself into this training and every day you seem to make it your mission to prove how inadequate I am. I won't always be weak but you'll always be vindictive and hurtful until you find it in yourself to admit to what's really going on here!"

She turned her head away in disgust, but was still unable to move her lower body so she could not turn her back as well. The silence stretched on for an indeterminable period of time. Damien continued to bolster the stasis field every time he felt it waning off, but he knew at this rate he'd soon be experiencing some very uncomfortable sensations from overextending his biotics. They seemed to be at an impasse, both unable to make any progress.

Remembering her departed friend, Alyssa let her eyes spill over and tears fall down her face. She choked and gasped against the sadness that threatened to consume her, then collapsed to the floor, her arms wrapping around her legs, bunching herself up into a ball as she sat crying quiet, stunted pleas. Damien walked up to her, his corona wearing off to becoming invisible as he knelt down beside her, trying to catch her gaze.

"Here," He offered a hand as he stood up, looking around the currently empty bay but knowing anyone could walk past at any time. "Come with me," Alyssa took his hand and got to her feet again, still upset but attempting to suppress it once again. Damien led them into a more secluded location in the changing area with equipment stowed in lockers and the showers beyond the far wall. He parked her on a bench and took a ten second recon trip to the showers to be certain they were alone. Soon as he confirmed it, he assuaged her fears. "We're alone."

Alyssa's tenuous control over her emotional dam broke down once again, flooding her with oppressive grief. Damien sat down next to her, awkward at first, not certain how to approach her. He gingerly placed a hand on her back, rubbing it up and down softly. Alyssa recoiled, surprised, and Damien pulled away to placate her.

"Sorry," He mumbled. He turned away, looking forward. Alyssa did so as well, finding it made it easier for her to speak up.

"Elizabeth had so many happy stories to tell. She always knew when I needed them. She'd talk about her brothers or her sister, about the trouble they used to get into as kids and the fun they had. One big happy family. It seemed unreal but because she said it, I knew I could trust it was the truth. It almost made it easier—easier to believe life was ok and that I didn't have to stay detached to protect myself.

"She already knew about my family life." Alyssa scoffed, drying her face before continuing. "I told her, same day I told her she was my best friend. She helped me so much that day—I can never repay her, no matter what I do."

"What happened?" Damien asked as Alyssa grew quiet.

Taking a rallying breath, she continued her monologue. "When I was a kid I was an only child, and a huge disappointment to my parents. My mom said I didn't respect her authority and that she would punish me for being rebellious. It didn't matter how small an infraction; it all pointed out to my mom how I was an unloving, unrepentant, petulant child. She made me sleep on the floor, or locked me in the walk-in closet, or take a bath in ice water. Whatever was easiest for _her_."

"Hell," Damien interjected, utterly horrified.

"Yes it was." Alyssa confessed. "Dad was always working, but when he wasn't, he was drunk. He used to yell so loud, threatening me if I didn't do as I was told and respect mom's authority. I hated them both. When I was old enough to sign up, I entered the marines. I wanted to get away from them, and I wanted to learn how to fight back. So I trained to become the best soldier I could, so no one could ever hurt me like that and get away with it ever again."

Damien gulped down something unpleasant that had threatened to resurface. His throat burned. Still, he sat quietly for Alyssa's benefit. "I can't believe I'm telling you this," She admitted, half joking but entirely serious. "I didn't think I could ever find the courage to talk to anyone ever again." He nodded, but said nothing. Alyssa continued, "She's never coming back. It's just me now. Alone."

"No," His voice cut through the air clear and concise. "You're not alone. You have me, Victor. We worry about you. Even Gabrielle worries about you, and you two never talk. You have to realize that you are not in this alone—we're here and we want to help."

"Ok," She replied softly. "I'll remember."

"Good." Damien pronounced. "Now," He smirked as they faced each other. "Who wants to kick my ass at hand-to-hand combat?"

Alyssa laughed despite herself. "I'm done, Civvy. And you stink wretchedly," She crinkled her nose in mock protest.

"So does my Lieutenant." He said standing up and heading for the showers.

"Touché," She replied, heading for a stall of her own.

- - - - -


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

It was meal time once again. Gabrielle and Damien were already seated by the time Victor and Alyssa showed their faces. They'd grown much closer as a squad since the fight, and Alyssa was known to smile once in a while, especially at her newest subordinate's continued naïvety. Damien welcomed them both to their nearby open seats and soon the conversation was back in full swing.

"I've heard the fleet's moving." Victor pointed out.

"Where did you hear that?" Alyssa asked, surprised.

"Scuttlebutt, of course."

"I don't believe a word of it until I see it," Damien stated. "It's probably just a misdirection campaign."

"Against our own people?" Gabrielle asked, eyes twinkling with amusement.

"It makes perfect sense! The only intelligence agents would never question!" He pointed emphatically with an empty fork. Gabrielle laughed, laying a hand on his arm and forcefully lowering it back to his plate.

"Leave it to Civvy to see into the heart of espionage with all his helpful training as a witness protection agent." Alyssa chuckled, crinkling her nose slightly. "Thank goodness you're not in charge of anything."

"One day," Damien prognosticated, "You'll all be eating these words. And I will single-handedly save the galaxy from some kind of apocalypse."

"Come on, Civvy." Alyssa could barely contain her laughter. "Surely that never happens in real life."

"Course not!" Victor cut in. "Not without me!"

The table erupted into joint laughter.

- - - - -

Admiral Joseph Timber sat looking at the comm link he was about to use. Admiral Hackett was sitting nearby. "We need everyone on board with this mission."

"Captain Reed is always cool-headed and methodical," Timber stated. "I know what she's going to be thinking; this is too soon."

"It's our best chance." Hackett replied. "Commander Shepard gave us intelligence indicating the geth are currently in a manufacturing overdrive to build mines and other stationary defenses. Thank goodness for their failed push in the Armstrong cluster. Without it, we wouldn't have the information we needed to find this out. The Alliance and the Council have agreed that the geth most likely did not plan on this contingency. They aren't ready for us, and they know it. If we want to attack, we have to attack now."

"I hope you're right, Admiral." Timber intoned. "Otherwise this will be a very short offensive."

"Just encourage the troops," Hackett commanded. "Make sure they believe you. Let me worry about the war."

Hackett and Timber stood, shaking hands. Hackett turned and left Timber to make his call. With the utmost resolve, he activated the comm link, making sure to apply military-grade encryption.

"Admiral Timber," Captain Reed greeted her immediate superior's hologram with a tight salute in the _Bunker Hill's _comm room. "What can the Triple Fives do for you?"

"At ease, Captain. I have good news. I was _right_. It's time to take the power of the Systems Alliance into geth territory. It's time to show them the price of their hubris for attacking the Citadel and our colony worlds."

"How big?"

"Very big. Several dreadnoughts, carriers, and a great deal of the fifth fleet's cruisers and frigates are assigned to this mission. The Triple Fives ready for this, Captain?"

"More than ready, Admiral." Captain Reed replied with a smirk. "When can we start?"

"We leave Arcturus in five minutes. We'll be in the Maroon Sea cluster inside of three days. The Triple Fives will be assigned advanced scouting into the Perseus Veil. The Citadel races are also contributing a few ships to augment our fleet; they're following humanity's lead. The geth are a problem that needed to have been dealt with years ago. Now's our chance to fix that oversight."

"The geth will not fall easily," Ashley prognosticated. "They fight to the death and will never give up."

"Neither will we," Admiral Timber reminded her. "The geth just had their entire Citadel fleet destroyed. It's time for fire and steel to make themselves heard throughout the Perseus Veil, before they have a chance to recover their losses."

"We're ready to do our part, Admiral. Permission to speak freely?"

Admiral Timber knew what was coming next, but granted the request anyway. "Go ahead, Captain."

She spoke quietly, as if she was privately conspiring with her commanding officer, "Everyone lost a lot defending the Citadel, can we really do this now, Admiral?"

"I won't lie to you, Captain. It's not going to be easy with the losses in the Serpent Nebula. But have some faith, Captain. The geth were not expecting to lose at the Citadel on account of their new dreadnought. We have indications that the geth are not prepared for a war on their doorstep. They want us to lick our wounds and leave them alone, give them time to build new defenses at their borders. We're going to surprise them before they can bunker down."

"Sounds good, Admiral. We're ready and waiting."

"The fleet's on its way, Captain. I'll be there to command the Triple Fives in person. Arcturus out."

Reed studied the blank wall as the hologram disappeared. _This can go two ways... Very right, or very wrong. There's nothing I can do about that from here. I better get the _Stalingrad_ ready for her flag officer._ She manipulated the FTL comm controls in front of her and hailed the nearby frigate.

"Commander Lynn, this is Captain Reed. Ready your ship, the Admiral is coming to make an 'inspection'. You've got under half a month to get ready. All time being relative."

Commander Lynn's voice came over the speakers. "We'll be ready, Captain."

"All time being relative" was obvious code. Captain Reed distrusted communications. All communications could eventually be decrypted and overheard. Months ago, she'd begun instructing the other commanding officers in her flotilla to use a simple code to avoid directly giving out timetables over the comm. The rule was to use a logarithmic scale of changing base to modify the time. Currently, the base was ten—so three days became 0.48 days. To further attempt to throw off eavesdroppers, hours were referred to as weeks, days were referred to as months, and weeks were referred to as years. It was a very simple code, but thanks to the changing base, she felt it was reliable enough for her purposes. She usually only changed the base by talking in person with the other commanders, or in a pinch by dropping a number during an otherwise innocuous conversation.

Safeguarding the Admiral's arrival time would help decreases chances of a surprise attack aimed at taking out a prominent member of the Systems Alliance command structure. Still, Reed wanted everything as secure as possible, so she immediately left the comm room, strode up to her platform in front of the galaxy holographics, and began to draw up a patrol route that would guarantee the cluster was secure when the Admiral arrived. Then she began issuing orders to put ships on the route.

- - - - -

Damien, Alyssa, and Victor were playing cards again. This time, betting was not allowed. Victor still won over half the hands dealt so far in the game, but distraction was the major purpose. The trio were continuing to support each other as much as possible, and Alyssa specifically benefited greatly from this. Privately, the two watched happily as she began to act more like her old self, less reserved and more confident.

Victor whistled in mock surprise. "Ouch. If this was a betting game, you'd be setting up a payment plan, LT. Hand them over, it's my turn to deal."

Damien and Alyssa both gave a collective moan over his seemingly endless supply of lucky breaks. Damien realized it was largely skill, especially in his poker face, but knowing how he did it did not help Damien avoid the pitfalls. Suddenly, the notification sound for the ship's intercom went off and the feed went live.

"This is Admiral Joseph Timber. The Fighting Fives have been ordered into the Perseus Veil on a reconnaissance mission. We have all lost greatly to the geth's murderous inclinations over the years of their existence. Today we will begin a campaign to stop them in their tracks. We won't take it any more! Today the fleet will show the geth the true meaning of retribution! Our enemy fears our sudden approach. They flee back behind the Veil seeking to hide. Well, it doesn't stop there. Not this time. This time, we will continue to pursue them! We will hound them and we will show no mercy! To navigators aboard all ships of the Fifty-fifth flotilla—set your courses for the Perseus Veil. To all helmsmen, FTL ahead full!" The system crackled briefly as the microphone disengaged. A series of cheers went through the hulls of all six vessels, drowning out all hope of coherent thought. Finally, order was restored, and everyone got themselves busy preparing for the next step—war.

In the mess hall of the _Bunker Hill, _two marines and a civilian shared a quiet glance between each other. Wordlessly, one began to pull all the cards together into an orderly pile, shoving them in their paper wrapping case and tucking them in his pocket. The other two stood up, still eying each other.

"This is war. Are you ready for this, Civvy?"

The other considered quietly, then nodded solemnly. "I could ask the same, LT."

"I'm ready." She answered matter-of-factually. "Thanks to both of you."

The one with the cards bulging from a breast pocket splayed a cocky grin. "Then let's go kick some geth ass."

All three yelled out together, "Oorah!" heading down to deck three, putting on their armor, and collecting their weapons from the quartermaster. Soon as they were fully prepared, they waited for whatever would come next, ready to give it everything they had and more.

The Triple Fives engaged the mass relay leading into the Perseus Veil. Almost instantaneously transported across the galaxy, they slowed back down to sublight speeds as they arrived at the relay near their destination. All five ships took up an easy defensive formation and began scanning—nothing on their sensors.

Admiral Joseph Timber studied the scans over the shoulder of the crewman in charge of sensors in the _Stalingrad_ CIC. At the same moment, both men recognized indications of geth sensor platforms and a FTL comm line leading to a nearby moon. Timber ordered all sensor platforms destroyed ASAP and then set a course for the planet they apparently communicated with. As the flotilla arrived, a geth cruiser was about to break orbit, having taken in several smaller craft coming from the moon's surface.

"All ships engage and destroy," Timber called over the comm.

Ashley Reed quickly complied, calling out, "_Sterling Bridge_ take point. Concentrate fire on sublight engines. Intercept course. All ships ahead flank!" The frigates were upon the helpless cruiser in seconds, but the geth were unwilling to give up so easily. Their cruiser's mass accelerator cannons were brought up and fired two shots into the _Sterling Bridge's_ kinetic barriers before all six ships reached a close enough range to out-maneuver the cruiser, keeping themselves out of the way of the cruiser's large MAC.

The cruiser's options waning thin, the geth activated close-range GARDIAN defenses, but they were unable to damage the ablative armored hull of the frigates quickly enough. Several minutes of constant bombardment by the frigates as they each did different figure-8 attack runs overwhelmed the cruiser's kinetic barriers, leaving it defenseless.

Reed ordered the _Bunker Hill_ on a wider arc, turning and executing a maximum burn for maximum acceleration. The _Hill_ took a MAC round to her shield as she adjusted her course, but once she was on her bombing run the cruiser didn't have the time to set up another shot. The _Hill_ streaked inward at incredible speed before launching two rounds from her single forward-facing MAC. The rounds inherited the velocity of the cannon firing them, as well as the immense acceleration given by the cannon's firing, giving the rounds a truly incredible velocity that hit with an impact so powerful it gouged deeply into the cruiser and caused a stress crack from stem to stern. A further round from the _Dunbar_, endowed with less impressive kinetic velocity, impacted the cruiser's aft section, causing one major thruster to shear off entirely. The crack along the port side of the geth cruiser widened and not even a second later, the ship's fuel went critical, causing a massive series of secondary explosions that utterly obliterated the cruiser in a fireball.

Nothing was left larger than the _Bunker Hill's_ mess hall tables. The Admiral ordered the other frigates to set up a perimeter while the _Bunker Hill_ was sent to investigate the moon the cruiser had been orbiting prior to their arrival.

Ashley wisely decided that the best way to secure the surface would be to overwhelm with superior numbers and firepower. She ordered the _Bunker Hill_ down to the surface for low-altitude hovering insertion—same as Therum. As the ship descended into the atmosphere, marines manned the mako and it was launched. The mako covered the insertion point while the _Hill_ continued to loop around, scrubbing speed and eventually settling into a still hover close to the ground. Lines were quickly dropped and Alyssa's team was the first to rappel down to the surface. Soon as they were clear, more marines quickly followed.

All-in-all, there were twenty-five dropped to the surface including the three manning the mako and Alyssa's team. Alyssa, highest ranked marine aboard the _Bunker Hill_, took charge of the ground forces. Meanwhile, the _Bunker Hill_ returned to orbit to avoid giving any geth mobilized units a chance to stumble across her and shoot her down.

Damien watched with adrenaline already flowing through him from the rappelling insertion. He was hyper-alert, worried the geth would come over the tops of the surrounding hills and open fire. None did, however, and soon the marines set out with the tank leading the way towards the nearby outpost.

As they topped a hill and could finally see the outpost, the mako team reported no contacts on the exterior. Seconds later, they panicked, reporting missile turrets popping out of the ground within range. All marines on foot dove to the ground and behind the hill as the mako accelerated away and began to engage the turrets.

Alyssa ordered the marines around for a different approach and the snipers were to take lead. Being a well-trained sniper herself, Alyssa joined the head of the foot soldiers as they rounded the way around. Over the radio, the mako team reported in. "One down, four to go! Watch those rocks, the last thing we need is to get caught up while we got missile turrets all over us!"

The snipers peaked a different hilltop, on their stomachs, sniper rifles out and looking through the scopes. Investigating the situation, Alyssa quickly surmised the mako team had been correct—there was no geth presence outside beyond the turrets formerly buried under the surface. She ordered the marines to hold position while she and the snipers spread out slightly. Using her omni-tool, Alyssa interlinked her HUD systems with the sniper team. Then she began to specify target designations. Soon as they were each in position, easily capable of hiding behind sturdy ground cover, she ordered the snipers to open fire on beta, helping damage the metal turret with their own armor-piercing rounds.

The mako served violently back and forth at speed, drawing a poor figure-8 pattern like the driver was tanked. The gunner was working on Alyssa's epsilon target, and a 155mm cannon round finished it off with the glory of exploding debris. Beta was damaged, and while mostly intact, it stopped firing rockets and appeared to turn sluggishly as it tried to track the mako's course. Alyssa's next sniper round appeared to hit a vital part as the turret froze, ceasing to move at all. Within a few minutes, the final two turrets were decimated until nothing remained above-ground. The mako escorted the rest of the team down the hill and over to the outpost, in case the geth held anything in reserve, the foot soldiers could use the mako and its kinetic barriers as impromptu cover.

The door was sealed shut, defenses obviously an integral part of the outpost's construction. Alyssa opened her comm channel. "Private Wilkes, the geth don't want us inside. I need your skills at the front door." One helmeted marine approached. Damien stuck close to his squad leader, watching as Wilkes activated his omni-tool. Damien recognized it possessed some form of non-standard interface, and privately considered it was probably a specialized tool meant for infiltration and combat. Alyssa cut through his thoughts with her voice over the radio again. "Everyone stay sharp—the geth aren't done yet. Might be more turrets ready to surprise us. Corporal Wallace, you're our eyes and ears out here once we're inside. Keep the way home clear, soldier."

"Yes, Ma'am," came a hearty reply from the soldier manning the mako's turret. "All clear to 400 on radar."

"Don't forget about your eyes, Corporal." Lieutenant Morgan reminded him.

"Of course, Ma'am."

Privately, Damien questioned his squad leader. "You seem a little nervous. You ok?"

Alyssa cut her radio transmission before replying. "I'm inside the Perseus Veil on a moon next to a geth outpost. I can be a little nervous if I want to be." She had a point, Damien conceded, and regardless, before he could have answered Wilkes popped the outpost door open. Immediately weapons were brought up to bear. Over the radio, she ordered, "Squads one through seven on me, we're going in." Wilkes took point, drawing his pistol as his omni-tool powered down. Alyssa followed, and Damien quickly behind her as the mass of marines closed on the small narrow doorway.

The hallway beyond was empty, but Alyssa was studying her readouts carefully before opening the door at the end of the hall. Soon as she was satisfied, she gave a nod to Wilkes, who made quick work of unlocking this door as well. The door opened and a hail of bullets greeted them. The marines charged into the first room, returning fire and grabbing cover wherever they could behind boxes inside the room. Damien himself struggled behind some cover as bullets tore at his kinetic barriers, driving them dangerously low.

"Suppressive fire suppressive fire!" Came Lieutenant Morgan's reply. Damien took a glance beyond his cover and nearly took a bullet to his face. The armor's systems reported critical barrier levels. With a cry that was nearly impossible to hear over the cacophony of battle, he stuck his pistol and right hand beyond cover and began squeezing off shots randomly, hoping to help deter the geth. The incoming fire subsided a bit as geth soldiers began falling or having to take their own cover. "Damien, biotics would be nice!" Lieutenant Morgan was in full military command mode now, thinking only of strategy and the fight before her. She was detached and amazingly calm as she commanded her units.

Damien's kinetic barriers had recharged to their full capacity while he had fired off random suppressive rounds with his pistol. Daring once again to look behind his cover, he flared his corona in anticipation, then began creating a massive singularity beyond enemy lines, high enough to pull geth up and above their cover if it caught them in its gravitational field. Three closely-grouped geth were pulled up against their will. It happened too quickly for any of them to grab a hold of anything sturdy. With a smile, Damien once again began firing his pistol at his three exposed targets, but their quick movements through the air as the singularity tossed them about made him miss several times.

He was not alone, however, and the rest of the squads were also firing at any geth who found its position exposed. One shock trooper deployed a hexagonal kinetic barrier shield in front of itself to protect itself as its normal kinetic barriers were depleted. One of the marines yelled, "Grenade!" and tossed a slim disc on the ground near the shock trooper's position. The trooper lunged away despite the danger of exposing itself once again to small-arms fire, but it was too late and caught the edge of the explosion as it detonated. The grenade's high yield explosive was sufficient to overload the trooper's hexagonal shield, leaving it nowhere to scramble for cover. It was filled with lead before it had a chance to pick itself up off the ground.

Damien spied another geth that made itself visible to his position briefly and he called a mass-lowering field down upon it. The geth's mass was lowered enough to make it lift into the air and float due to its change in density. It didn't have time to do anything about its predicament before hosts of assault rifle bullets let into it, ripping its shields and finally its own life.

"Primes!" One marine yelled. Damien's vision darted to motion near another door in this room. Two extremely tall, hulking, and bipedal geth came into the room, seemingly unworried about taking cover to avoid getting shot. Their white armor was highly reflective, shining the ceiling lights at random angles as they moved into the room. They were taller than the doorways, only straightening to their full 12 foot height once fully into the room.

Alyssa quickly ordered, "Damien, lift them now!"

Damien didn't waste a moment to respond. He dropped his pistol and raised his hand in his trained mnemonic for the same mass-lowering field he'd just used. The Primes were both unfazed and began firing heavy assault weapons at the marines. Without needing any assistance from their surviving forces, the two geth primes completely suppressed the twenty-one marines. The more frail sources of cover were obliterated by powerful rounds and one marine had to drive back behind heavier cover before he could be mawed by the primes. The marine cried out in pain as one single round penetrated his kinetic barriers down near his left leg. The bullet took off the man's leg just below the knee.

Momentarily distracted, Damien turned back to see a prime sweeping its deadly weapon back over towards him. He ducked behind his cover as bullets ricocheted off the floor near where he had been only a moment ago. He swore aloud contemplating his close brush with death.

"Damien!" Lieutenant Morgan's voice was hard and unrelenting.

"They're heavier than I thought," Damien yelled back. "They've got me suppressed; I need another shot."

"Squads four and six, return fire!" Six marines obeyed, peaked over their respective obstructions, and attempted to squeeze off return fire, but the primes were quick to re-train their weapons on them, forcing the squads back down.

Damien quickly peered around the corner and raised his hand in an identical motion, this time channeling more of his strength into the mass effect field. With a sudden jerk, both geth primes lost contact with the ground and their weapons caused them to begin to somersault in midair as they were pushed backwards by the equal and opposite force to the one driving their bullets forward. Given a shot, Lieutenant Morgan ordered all units to open fire on the geth primes.

The marines immediately complied, focusing all their attention on the two momentarily helpless geth. The smaller geth still in the fight retaliated, trying to drive the marines back behind their cover before they could destroy the primes. However the kinetic barriers of the marines' armor protected them long enough to destroy one of the primes. Damien also capitalized on the momentary advantage, calling out further biotic assaults on the smaller geth. His corona was so fiery and alight that he could see it in his peripheral vision even as he was concentrating on the targets on the opposite side of the room. He felt a slight burning settling into his blood and knew his stamina would not last much longer. He hoped he had enough left in him to see him through the battle.

With some dismay he realized in his haste to lift the primes unsuccessfully the first time, he'd left his pistol in their line of fire. Once hidden behind his cover, he checked around for his weapon. He found it, lying decimated way back in the hallway through which they'd all entered.

Knowing it was impossible to get to it with the geth still in the room, and likely being severely damaged from a geth prime's bullet connecting with the weapon in the first place, Damien didn't bother to retrieve it. He felt his biotics giving out and yelled, "Prime's going to fall!" over his radio.

"Finish it off before it get back on its feet, marines!" Lieutenant Morgan sounded worried.

The prime landed with a loud crash and immediately began to pick itself and its large weapon back up off the ground. Soon as it was upright, it began firing on the marines' position once again, forcing them to cease fire and take cover. Damien attempted to push the titan over with another mass effect field before darting back behind his cover. He wasn't successful, but did drive the heavy weapon flying out of the geth prime's hands. It immediately chased down its weapon, its kinetic barriers still defending it from the marine's weapons.

As it picked up the weapon, the marines finally applied enough damage to overcome the prime's kinetic barriers. It swiveled on its feet to face the enemy and open fire, but rounds began impacting its armored surface, designed to penetrate. Alyssa sheathed her shotgun quickly and switched to her sniper rifle, bringing it to bear even as it expanded from a collapsed form. She took aim in the scope as the weapon finished preparing for use, spying the large flashlight eye of the twelve foot monstrosity. A quick reflex squeeze and her armor-penetrating sniper round went straight through the geth's eye, causing it to shatter and go dark. The beast hulked forward in shock and surprise squeezing the heavy weapon's trigger but not aimed at anything at all as it fell forward and collapsed in a prone position. It didn't move again, and the remaining geth seemed traumatized to have seen two of their best warriors cut down. Their fire discipline broke down, and the marines finished off the last shock trooper as it attempted to retreat through the same passageway from which the primes had emerged.

Damien took a deep sigh of relief and quickly retreated to his pistol's position. He knelt down on armored shins and knees as he slowly picked up the weapon. It immediately cracked and broke into two separate pieces, splitting the barrel into two separate lengths. Lieutenant Morgan quickly ordered the room secured and better defensive positions taken with respect to the single doorway leading deeper into the facility. Victor hung back to see what Damien was doing. He leaned over his squad mate's shoulder and observed the weapon fall apart into two pieces.

"How is it you still have a right hand, Civvy?" He asked, deadly serious.

Damien shrugged, not wanting to explain it was because he'd left the weapon lying in the prime's line of sight. "Pretty amazing. I think the prime did it."

"Damn, you're lucky." He replied. "Here, take my pistol for now."

Damien stood up, leaving his ruined weapon on the floor. He grabbed the offered pistol, nodding in affirmation. "Thanks, Vic."

"No problem. Let's hope your luck holds. Who knows how big this facility is. There's probably more geth down below."

"Let's not keep them waiting," Damien replied, projecting bravado. Victor nodded and led him to a new position with a good firing position on anything that attempted to come through the doorway leading into the heart of the facility.

"Short hallway, then a 90 degree turn." One marine reported to Lieutenant Morgan. "Could be another ambush up ahead. Geth could be hiding beyond the corner, waiting for us."

"Alright. Squad seven, escort injured back up to the surface for extraction. Squad two, take point and be careful with any sharp corners up ahead. Everyone else falls in behind two."

"No wait!" Damien called out. "Let me take point. If there's a small ambush I can disable them quickly before they can do anything."

Lieutenant Morgan considered his request. "Alright, Civvy has point. Two, back him up. Don't let anything happen to him. Damien, _be careful_." Damien nodded and quickly moved to the front, checking that Victor's pistol was ready for use before advancing slowly down the hallway. His biotic corona stayed alight at his mental behest, ready to react in a moment's notice if something should come around the corner. Once he reached the corner, he backed up against the inside wall, and quickly peeked around the corner. Squad two's leader protested with a grunt of disapproval and Damien looked back, scowling.

The leader did not reply, merely offering something in his hand. Curious, Damien took it and looked it over. It was a small mirror on a dark-colored telescoping handle. Grateful, Damien amended his earlier glare with a thankful nod of his head and a smile. He extended the handle to a comfortable length, then shoved the mirror beyond the corner. He changed the mirror's attitude, sweeping the entirety of his line of sight from this position. Seeing not targets, he motioned for the squad to follow him as he advanced around the corner, pocketing the mirror as he pushed it back to its shortest length.

The teams proceeded slowly and silently into the facility. They secured the entire level and took a long spiral staircase down nearly twenty feet before the stairs ended at a door. Weapons were leveled, ready to react in a moment to whatever greeted them on the other side. Damien pushed the door open from a distance with a moderate biotic shove, scanning the room on the other side. There were banks of computers and transmission equipment. From the ceiling above, four rocket fliers descended and opened fire. Damien and the other marines nearest the doorway quickly pressed themselves against either wall as the rockets came through the doorway, exploding close by on the stairs, breaking them up. "Fliers!" One yelled out to the others.

The marines leapt into action immediately, returning fire, quickly downing one flier as Wilkes ran forward through the masses and aimed his omni-tool in the fliers' direction. Damien's biotics proved ineffective against the flying drones as they could counteract any mass effect field he created in their vicinity with modifications to their own.

Wilkes' omni-tool launched off a tech mine at the filers, detonating it for moderate damage, but most importantly it overheated and shut down the fliers' weapons before they could launch another rocket spread. The marines finished off each flier in turn before their overheated rocket launchers were able to cool back down.

Alyssa ordered the marines inside the room to secure it. It was a single room with no other access points—the geth were apparently not concerned with the possibility of this one path ever being cut off and preventing them from leaving. Wilkes and a couple other fellow marines began working on the computer equipment, trying to break into the geth databases and discover more information about the facility.

They broke into some files and began to copy the data as fast as their tools could work before the geth systems fried themselves to protect their data. One of them explained aloud, "It looks like this is a surveillance outpost watching the entrance to the Veil. There's almost eight terabytes of archived surveillance footage on here, we're saving the most recent information for later analysis but the system is programed to purge itself. The data's erasing as we speak."

Another stated, almost awed, "Amazing the level of sophistication of their storage devices. The geth know how to really pack in the data!"

Within a few minutes, all the data the greedy marines could get their hands on was copied and the system core was completely destroyed. Wilkes, analyzing some separate systems, shouted and swore at what he had just discovered. "Self-destruct has been initiated! The data was left to distract us and keep us down here while the destruct prepared to level this entire building! We need to get out of here now!"

Damien's head snapped to face Wilkes, just as surprised at the revelation as he was. Lieutenant Morgan yelled out her orders, "All units fall back to the surface _now!_" In an uncontrolled rush, everyone began running for the stairs and heading up towards the surface. Damien waited for most of the others to pass ahead of him before inserting himself into the flow of people.

Wilkes' omni-tool reported fifteen seconds to annihilation as he hit the top of the stairs and entered the main floor's interior room. He was the last one, making sure everyone was ahead of him and moving forward as fast as possible for the exit. With a heave, he threw himself out of the door onto the dusty surface of the moon. The others were still running to put distance between themselves and the collapsing building as it imploded, generating a massive explosion sound combined with the groaning of metal as it sheared apart and bent, capsizing the building's ceiling until the entire facility was leveled. The mako was empty nearby, the three marines had left it to rush towards the building and help pull their fellow soldiers to safety.

The shockwave threw most of them off their feet. They quickly got back to their feet and examined the ruined building they'd been in only minutes ago. There was a deathly silence in the wake of the destruction.

Alyssa called out for a head count and soon established that everyone had gotten clear of the wreckage unharmed. She gave a silent plea of thanks for that miracle and called the _Bunker Hill_ to let them know her status.

Captain Reed wasted no time to decide the next course of action. "Alright, Lieutenant, move your men up to the top of the south hill for dust-off. The _Hill_ is inbound. Let's get everyone back aboard and see what data you were able to collect before the purge wiped the database clean. Admiral Timber is anxiously waiting to know what you found down there."

"Yes Ma'am." Soon as the channel cut, she asked, "What injuries do we have?"

Damien had already begun a circuit of the entire group and found the only serious injury was the critical case of the marine who had lost a significant portion of his leg to the geth prime. The two marines who had carried him out in a retreat had staunched the worst of the bleeding with liberal use of medigel, but the marine had lost considerable amounts of blood before the wound was sealed. He was cold and pale. Damien opened a pouch on his suit and pulled out a saline drip, quickly exposing an arm, finding a vein, and inserting the IV needle into the soldier.

"What's your name, marine?" Damien asked in a commanding tone.

"Private Leroy Myerson, Sir."

"I'm just a civilian, Leroy. Call me Damien. Do you know where you are?"

"On a planet—or a moon, I mean." His voice was faltering and the pain registered visibly through his eyes. "Am I going to die?"

"You're not going to die, Leroy. I'm going to help you," Damien told him. "Just hang in there, the _Bunker Hill's_ coming. Just a few minutes and we'll have you in the med bay for some surgery. Then everything will be ok."

"If you say so," He stammered, unable to stop shaking. Damien pitied the poor man, wishing he could do more to help him. Instead, all he could do was hold the saline bag high to keep the fluid flowing down into the marine.

Damien checked with the marine responsible for caring for Leroy before he had arrived. "You gave him a dose of morphine already, right?"

The man nodded vigorously in his helmet. "You should have heard him screaming,"

"Ok." Damien cut in to avoid that particular train of thought. "Check with Lieutenant Morgan, I want an ETA on the _Bunker Hill_." The marine got up from his kneeling position and ran off towards the Lieutenant.

A few moments later he jogged back over, getting back down to his knees to be on the same general level as Damien and the injured marine. "LT says ten minutes or less until the _Bunker Hill_ is right on top of us on this hill."

"Good." Damien replied. "And good work on the leg. You've done well, Private."

"Thank you, sir." His questioning gaze sent towards Damien made it clear he was uncertain if Leroy Myerson would survive the day. Damien hoped he would, but the odds were not exactly highly promising. Leroy was lucky to have received treatment quickly, but even so, the trauma was severe. Tense minutes passed and Leroy barely held onto consciousness. Finally, Damien heard the unmistakable roar of the hovering thrusters on the _Bunker Hill_ as she streaked overhead, coming to a stop close-by and landing rapidly, retracting her thruster arms so they would not be damaged by coming into contact with the moon's surface.

Damien gave the private a significant look. "Alright, get ready. We need to move him to the medical bay immediately."

- - - - -

Alyssa found her biotic companion leaving the medical bay as the _Bunker Hill_ returned to space. He gave her a tired smile as she joined him in what amounted to a trudge towards the elevator down to deck three.

"Hey, LT." Damien greeted, enthusiasm distinctly lacking.

"You look really white," Alyssa noted, worried. "You alright? Is Private Myerson alright?"

"We'll know more after the surgery. Best case scenario, he's still lost half his leg. I wouldn't call that 'alright' personally."

"Better than being dead," she noted.

"Point taken." Damien conceded.

"Is that why you look so sick? Worried about Myerson?"

Damien shook his head 'no'. "I am worried; I hope he makes it out of surgery ok, but I doubt that's the reason I feel so crappy right now. Honestly I _feel_ sick. I don't understand why." The two team mates entered the elevator and the door began to close behind them.

"You should have stayed in the med bay, gotten yourself checked out."

"Waste of limited resources," Damien replied. "They need to put all their attention on Leroy if he's going to make it. I'll only distract them. Besides, I'm still functional. Whatever's wrong will probably turn out to be simple exhaustion and just pass on its own with some recuperation time."

"You're probably right," Alyssa Morgan concluded. "Where are you going?"

"Locker room," He replied. "I have to get out of this armor. And considering the beating my kinetic barriers took today, the armor's power supply probably needs a recharge anyway." The elevator door opened to reveal the lower habitable deck and the two began walking towards the locker room.

"Good thinking. Marines gotta care for their equipment if they want it to save their lives."

"Ahh, yeah, about that. This isn't my pistol," Damien withdrew his sidearm from the hip holster, offering it to Alyssa as visual proof. "It's Victor's. Mine was maimed by a bullet from one of those geth prime's heavy assault weapons. Broke clean in two when I picked it up after the battle was over."

"Damn!" Alyssa interjected, grabbing Damien's right hand and checking to verify in her own mind that he still had all his fingers. "How'd you manage that?"

"I don't even know," he replied with a rueful smile, pulling his hand away and returning it to his side. "I'm glad it was just the weapon, though. Any chance I can get a new pistol?"

"I'll have to requisition it." Alyssa answered. "I'll talk with the requisitions officer later."

"Thanks," Damien replied. The two arrived at the locker room, heading inside to change out of the armor and into the navy's blue BDU's. Damien stripped and changed slowly, taking his time, while Alyssa worked as quickly as possible. As he overheard her leaving, he called out so she would hear, "I'll see you later, LT."

"Alright, Damien." She called back, continuing on her way.

Damien took a seat on the bench behind him as he faced his locker. The armor was placed inside, the power supply connected to an electrical cord built into the locker's interior. The system was already working on recharging as he grabbed his own BDU's and began to put them on. His arms and legs still burned a little from lingering sensations left by the near-overuse of his biotics. He didn't usually experience symptoms for this much time after the actual exertion, which almost concerned him. In the end, he decided it was probably just a symptom combined with stress making it last longer than he expected, so he tried to ignore it and work through it.

Leaving the locker room, he began to feel better. The burning sensation finally disappeared, but right on its heels was physical exhaustion. By the time the elevator reached the second deck again, he was barely able to walk. Stumbling into the mess hall, he grabbed an unopened MRE left lying on a table and sagged into a chair, opening it. He ate the cold items such as crackers and dessert greedily. The rest was heated by an exothermic reaction in roughly ten minutes, the majority of which Damien spent staring hungrily at the packaging. Once it was ready he tore into the food, barely stopping to breathe, and finished it in mere minutes, completely ignoring the typical MRE lack of flavor in favor of calories. The MRE hit his gut noticeably, making him uncomfortable, but if his suspicions were right, then the best thing he could do right now would be to eat something to replenish what he'd burned away using biotics.

His suspicions seemed confirmed after the food had an hour to begin digestion. His energy returned slightly and he no longer felt on the verge of passing out. Relieved, he decided to find Lieutenant Morgan and find out what the requisition officer had said.

Captain Ashley Reed stood in front of the holograms of Admiral Timber and the other five ship commanders in the flotilla. They were all pouring over the initial reports from the moon's surface with great interest and discussing the next course of action.

Commander Ballard mused, "That transmission equipment means the geth most assuredly know of our flotilla's arrival. They may tailor a fleet specifically to counteract our advantages. We probably shouldn't stay here."

"As the tip of the spear we're always going to have to accept that risk," Admiral Timber reminded them all. "What the geth are very quickly going to realize is that one frigate flotilla scouting their territory is the least of their worries. Soon as they learn about the fleet behind us, that will be their major concern. The fleet is arriving through the mass relay as we speak. This is the only system within long-distance FTL range, so we'd better start preparing to suss out the next cluster."

"It seems wrong," Simone Lynn stated as soon as Timber finished making his remarks. "The Protheans usually put mass relays in a cluster of at least two solar systems. Now, behind the Veil, the first 'cluster' we come across has only a single solar system in it."

"I agree, but what else can it be but an odd occurrence?" Rachael Keats questioned. "We've all looked and we've all agreed this is it for the Danaë cluster."

Seeking to steer the conversation back towards their next move, Wesley Dunham asked, "What do we know about the next cluster, Medusa?"

"The quarians sent us all their navigation data about the Perseus Veil," Admiral Timber answered. "Their data suggests the next cluster is densely packed—at least five star systems, and a lot of valuable resources in the planets and asteroid belts. I would expect heavy geth presence in the cluster to secure resources."

"Agreed," Reed offered her own input. "We'll probably need to stay grouped together, recon the nearest system, and call for reinforcements. Once the fleet enters this system, we can go from one star to the next, wiping out resistance. It's the safest approach and considering we're only just beginning to see the Veil for ourselves and the fact no one has been in here in over 300 hundred years; we should be cautious about spreading ourselves thinly and inviting the geth to dismantle the fleet a ship at a time."

The other five nodded affirmation and Timber made the final call exactly as Reed had put forth. "Alright. Our flotilla comes in with a minute-or-less lead time. Secure the mass relay, the fleet comes in and establishes a perimeter around it. Then we break off for the nearest cluster. Should be able to keep ourselves close enough to reinforcements we shouldn't have much about which to worry."

The _Bunker Hill's _internal comm demanded attention. Reed asked for a moment and muted her current connection before opening the new line. Corman Wells was asking for attention from the bridge. "Captain, the fleet's completely through the mass relay. All ships report readiness for the next jump."

"Thank you, Commander. Out." Ashley closed the line and returned to her first connection. "Admiral, Commanders, My XO tells me the fleet is all present and accounted for. Time to redirect the secondary mass relay towards the next cluster."

"How long will it take the relay to turn away from Maroon Sea and face the next cluster in the Veil?" asked one of the ship's commanders.

"Not long—a matter of minutes," came Ashley's confident reply. She'd dealt with primary and secondary relays for a long time and was quite used to their performance. Primary relays covered the greatest galactic distances, but required two permanent relays, one at the sending location and one at the destination. They also could only go where they'd been built and programmed to go; a different destination required an additional mass relay at the sending location. Secondary relays were much shorter-ranged, but still well beyond typical ship-based FTL range. They could reorient themselves to face a series of different destinations according to the ship's request. Soon as they aligned properly with the destination's own secondary relay, the sending relay would accelerate the ship to otherwise impossible speeds and nearly instantaneously deliver it to its destination. The matching secondary relay at the destination served a two-fold purpose, helping to slow the ship when it arrived, and providing the means of returning the way the ship had come.

According to the quarians, besides the primary relay connecting the Veil with the rest of the known galactic relay network, all Perseus Veil mass relays were secondary relays. This made the Veil considerably well-connected between its disparate star clusters, and made the Systems Alliance's job even more difficult because the geth would always have more than one possible approach vector, giving them a defender's advantage as the attackers would have no way of predicting from where the retaliation forces would come. The risks of being cut off from approach by the rear were all too real and the fleet would have to maintain tight discipline if they were to emerge victorious.

"I'd better brief the rest of the fleet on our approach to reconnoitering Medusa. Be ready to move. Admiral Timber out." The holograms disappeared. Reed briefly entertained the recurring worry that things were going to go horribly wrong with this campaign. She took a steadying breath and vowed to bring them through whatever happened.

Alyssa Morgan clutched a gun-metal gray pistol with light red markings down both sides. She continued threading through short, narrow halls of the frigate as she contemplated the weapon. Overall, it was nothing special, but Damien would need something more than just biotics to inflict casualties. She had planned to show it to him immediately and place it in his responsibility so he'd be ready whenever they were next needed; however, she had yet to find him on a very small ship. As she approached engineering, she chided herself for not checking there earlier. She knew Damien had spent considerable time here and he seemed to talk to Staff Lieutenant Allshouse the most often.

As the doors slid open for her with their iconic mechanical sound, she spied him standing a mere few meters away, barely inside engineering. He was staring off into space. _Typical,_ she mused, _he's lost in thought._ She cleared her throat to attract his attention as she stood beside him.

"Hey, LT. Sorry, I was going to find you after I had a little to eat, but I got sidetracked when I came in here during my search."

"Uh huh." She replied, hints of humor in her voice. "Well, here I am. And here's your new pistol." She offered the weapon grip-first. Damien took it with his right hand, bringing it up for closer inspection before test-holding the weapon pointed into the ceiling. He nodded.

"Well, I'm no firearm enthusiast, but this seems like a good weapon," He concluded. "Thank you, LT."

"No problem Civvy. Try to keep this one in one piece."

"You got it," He replied. Realizing his BDUs lacked a holster for it, he pushed off the wall he was leaning against and began to head for his equipment locker. Soon as it was safely stowed, he returned to engineering, but found that Alyssa had left already. Shrugging it off, he resumed his place leaning against a wall.

"You look entirely too relaxed for being in the middle of a war." Gabrielle told him point-blank. "Seriously, is this like a cool-customer look you're going for, or what?"

Damien laughed. "I never thought about it. Now that you mention it, I do feel a lot more confident. You should have seen me in that geth facility. Two of the largest geth I have _ever_ seen. I lifted both of them at once, gave the marines a chance to plug them full of lead."

"The next Shepard hero in the making?" She asked, teasing.

"Ha ha, hardly," was all the response Damien deemed worth the humorous remark. He nodded to the core. "Does that look more blue to you today?"

"Eh?" She asked, turning towards the core. "It looks fine," she began as she turned back to face him.

When her vision returned to Damien, she immediately noticed a biotic corona, very gentle and light, had set upon him. _It actually softens his edges_, Gabrielle decided, somewhat taken aback by its silent appearance. Damien smiled as she regarded him privately. "Ok, then. So, unless my eyes further deceive me, it's high past time you got off shift."

"Most of the next shift is already here," Gabrielle informed him. "I'm waiting on my replacement. Apparently he's running late."

"I can put the fear of timeliness into him if you want," Damien threatened with an uncontrollable smirk on his face.

"I'll worry about him. Why are you glowing like you're about to do something unexpected?"

Damien looked down at his hands, bending his arms at the elbow to bring them closer. "Huh." He stated, surprised. "I didn't tell it to do that."

"Here he is," Gabrielle told her companion, then quickly moved to intercept as the next duty chief arrived. "You! You're fifteen minutes late! What is so confusing about—" She launched into a diatribe that put the fear of Gabrielle Allshouse into the man. He apologized, vowing to never allow it to happen again.

Damien, meanwhile, was more curious about his biotic corona showing itself unconsciously. He'd thought he had mastered control over this phenomenon years ago. Now, here it was, showing him just how wrong he was. It was puzzling and a little frustrating. He tamped the corona back down consciously, aggravated at the revelation. Soon as Gabrielle was finished dressing down her subordinate, the two left engineering and discussed the less than edible MREs the _Bunker Hill_ carried for ashore marines during missions.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

The first star the _Bunker Hill_ visited after arriving in the Medusa star cluster was a dwarf with only two captured bodies—one obviously artificial. A considerable geth fleet had amassed in anticipation of an attack on this front-line shipyard and were currently running a screening operation with their GARDIAN lasers to prevent any sub-capital Systems Alliance ship from getting a shot at the shipyards.

The Systems Alliance dreadnoughts were easily over a couple kilometers long, and their main guns accounted for most of this length. The extremely long barrels allowed for massive, large projectiles to be accelerated to extreme velocities, too fast to be intercepted by anything short of a pre-existing kinetic barrier, and strong enough to put nuclear warheads to shame. Dreadnought rounds are also capable of penetrating kinetic barriers on any ship smaller than themselves, and even other dreadnoughts' barriers when the target is already under fire.

Admiral Hackett knew his dreadnoughts were strategic resources he could not afford to lose, so he kept his carriers and their 1-man interceptor crafts close to protect the dreadnoughts from swarms of geth frigates and interceptors. Meanwhile, his own frigates moved into knife-fight range, hoping to push the geth ships apart and break up the fleet. As much as Hackett wanted to destroy the shipyard, he had to concentrate his dreadnought firepower on the opposing geth dreadnoughts, hoping to force them to retreat first. Once the geth dreadnoughts were forced into retreat, it would merely be a matter of time for his fleet to wipe out the opposing forces and destroy the geth's shipyard.

Aboard the _Bunker Hill_, Lieutenant Larissa Knight pressed the sublight thrusters for full speed, weaving amongst what looked like stationary geth cruisers from this fast-moving perspective. A nearby geth cruiser had lost its kinetic barriers only moments ago and Captain Reed immediately ordered the triple fives to commence bombing runs similar to the practice run on the abandoned freighter in the Maroon Sea cluster. The six vessels each approached from their own relative bearings to the geth cruiser, not willing to wait while the cruiser left such an inviting target.

The _Bunker Hill_ and _Stalingrad_ were the first two vessels to fire their mass accelerator cannons and connect with the cruiser, who's GARDIAN defenses left neat scorch marks on the frigate's ablative armor in recompense. Its blood in the water, the other four rounds slammed into the ship in fast succession, decompressing several decks and expelling silver atmosphere, shards of metal, and many unfortunate geth troopers that were sucked through the breeches by the rushing air.

The cruiser's hull buckled and the core went critical, causing it to explode in a shower of debris that impacted several of its allies' own kinetic barriers. The triple fives continued to press their attack in the wake of the explosion, looking for any other vessels with weakened barriers from absorbing the explosion and impact of debris. The geth lines were beginning to fill with debris with each kill, but the battle was far from decisive.

The Systems Alliance fleet was taking more cruiser casualties than the geth fleet. The geth dreadnoughts were excellent in their quick heading changes, allowing them to still score powerful strikes against the smaller human cruisers with surprising regularity. Each time a dreadnought hit a Systems Alliance cruiser, its kinetic barriers were largely stripped and it became a welcoming target for the geth's cruisers and frigates.

The battle continued for a solid hour of back and forth slugging before a true victor could finally be predicted. The geth began to pull themselves away from the Alliance vessels to open up space between them. Captain Reed noticed the action almost immediately and predicted they were preparing a retreat.

Considering the forces still active on the geth's side, it was likely they were saving their fleet to join up with another and reinforce a different star system. Hackett immediately called out for his frigates to harass as many ships as possible—not seeking kills, but to attempt to prevent the geth from opening the space they'd need to jump to FTL speeds without risking instant death collisions with his frigate flotillas.

The _Bunker Hill_ circled the perimeter of a series of geth cruisers, getting extremely close but always managing to stay on the outside of the geth formation, attempting to force the formation tighter and thus increase the risks for the vessels to enter FTL flight. The maneuver met with mixed success for other flotillas, but the triple fives managed to coordinate their constricting motions until they practically tied a noose around a formation of six geth cruisers and suffocated them. Unable to escape to FTL, the cruisers remained at sublight, futilely seeking to out run the smaller, more maneuverable frigates. The fifth fleet dreadnoughts trained their bows on the vessels and Hackett ordered the 55th flotilla to keep clear of the dreadnoughts' line of sight on the bead of cruisers. A hole opened in their corral, giving the geth cruisers a chance to divert course and attempt to escape the frigates' stranglehold, but before they could attempt escape the dreadnoughts opened fire. Every two seconds, massively powerful projectiles slammed into the cruisers. Their high kinetic energies stripped the two most exposed cruisers' kinetic barriers with their first impacts, and subsequent hits completely obliterated the cruisers, leaving massive holes in the middle. As they were destroyed, the next layer became exposed to the dreadnoughts, and the procedure was repeated twice more. With only a single geth cruiser left of the original six, the frigates finally lost their ability to head off the geth ship and it quickly escaped into FTL, safe from further harm.

Captain Reed ordered, "Fifty-fifth pull back to point gamma. The geth are retreating." The crew erupted into cheers and hollers of joy and relief as everyone in the CIC watched the remaining geth forces jump away.

Soon as they were alone, Hackett's voice came over the comm. "All ships, target the shipyards. Maintain medium range or greater. Take that structure down!"

Frigates are small, they have a very short MAC compared to the main cannon on a cruiser or dreadnought. This meant they couldn't accelerate their projectiles to the same speed as either larger class of starship and thus a moving target could more easily evade their fire at medium range. In fleet combat, the _Bunker Hill_ and all frigate flotillas were forced to get into close range, even knife-fight ranges of a dozen kilometers, in order to strike their targets.

However, the shipyard was unable to move in evasion, so even as the frigates gave the shipyard a wide berth at medium range, they could still fire and strike the structure. Within seconds, the combined firepower of the entire fleet brought the structure's kinetic barriers down and decimated it to nothing larger than component molecules. The entire region of space where the first battle of Medusa took place was covered in debris, both fine and coarse, forcing the SA vessels to move methodically and keep their kinetic barriers active to protect them from damage. Hackett, himself just as giddy as everyone else in the _Fuji_'s CIC, took a moment to bask in the glory of their accomplishment before resuming command.

"All vessels, pull out of the debris field and meet up at nav-point tau. Use all available heat radiation gear to lower ship hull temperature to acceptable levels. Mr. Zwerschke I want a full report on the fleet's status."

An older man with a bald head confirmed his order. "Yes, sir. Compiling a post-action fleet report immediately, Admiral." Hackett watched the man move off to tend to his duties. As the commander of the fifth fleet, Hackett had a lot riding on this campaign. He couldn't afford to get sloppy behind the Perseus Veil, or the synthetic geth would take advantage of him immediately. He knew, academically, it was unlikely the geth would return for another engagement so soon—but then maybe they realized it just as he and would seek to keep him off balance. He certainly would, if their roles were reversed and he had to defend the Veil. _Paranoia is healthy_, he reminded himself,_ if it can keep you and your men alive._

- - - - -

The fifty-fifth flotilla investigated their next star in the Medusa cluster, a red giant which may have had more satellites at one time thousands of years ago, before the star's radius began growing. All that was left was its outermost satellites, five planets which were in the process of breaking free from the dying star. The system appeared empty to sensors; with the star on its way towards death, there was nothing useful left in the system. The flotilla stopped only to dump their drive charge into two planets with the strongest magnetic fields of the group, investigating the empty system with sensors while they waited.

Captain Reed informed the fleet of their sensor results before ordering the flotilla to proceed to the next star, some twelve hours out. The next system was believed by the quarians to be the richest solar system in four nearby clusters and that meant there was an extreme likelihood of heavy geth development.

The flotilla left FTL on the outskirts of the system and were immediately faced with an opposing flotilla of geth frigates along with one cruiser. The geth immediately opened fire, hoping to catch the ships off-guard.

Reed had anticipated they would be intercepted, so the flotilla wasted no time in activating both weapons and defenses. Fortunately, the 55th had come out of FTL a great distance from the geth flotilla, so there was considerable time to activate kinetic barriers and assume an attack formation. The frigates quickly zigzagged in unison as they attempted to close range. The geth cruiser's more powerful MAC gave it the advantage in ranged fighting, and Ashley was determined not to give the cruiser more time to capitalize on that advantage. The 55th closed in short order, getting into knife-fight range, basically removing the cruiser's advantage in firepower as it could no longer face the fast-moving ships to shoot.

Corman Wells studied the holographic map and his own readings, reporting to Captain Reed the information she would need to know about the rest of her flotilla. "Captain, the _Sterling Bridge_ took four solid hits from the cruiser before we closed range. She's got weakened kinetic barriers and the frigates are hounding her."

"All ships concentrate on breaking up their attack runs. Keep them off the _Sterling_ as much as possible." She watched the battle playing out, trying to get ahead of the geth as she contemplated how the battle would progress. She was again surprised by the geth's accuracy; even though the cruiser was largely useless by this point in the engagement, the frigates were making up for it with solid hits.

"Target gamma's kinetic barriers have fallen!" Yelled one officer manning a CIC post nearby.

"All frigates, divert to gamma." Ashley ordered. "Pittman, throw your ship into a high-acceleration y-axis dive and stay close to the geth cruiser. If they want to hit you, they have to risk hitting their cruiser. Everyone else, designate target gamma and take them out!"

The _Sterling Bridge_ complied a moment later, diving down towards the larger geth vessel, and beginning to circle it, harassed by the cruiser's GARDIAN defenses. The geth frigates attempted to pursue, but held more and more of their fire as the Systems Alliance vessel used their cruiser as a hostage shield. Meanwhile, the rest of the flotilla managed to knick several thrusters on frigate gamma, causing it to lose most of its control and ability to accelerate. Ashley noted the ship's relative course was very near to a collision course with the cruiser so she attempted to exploit it. "All ships take shots at gamma's dorsal-aft hull. I want to nudge gamma into alpha if possible."

The frigates all began flying up the z-axis above both gamma and alpha, before turning around and diving at full acceleration towards the frigate. They launched projectiles before breaking off the attack run. Ashley counted as the five shots each hit their mark perfectly, throwing the geth frigate into a mad spin around her y-axis and giving her a slight acceleration towards the cruiser.

The geth cruiser, designated alpha, noticed the danger and immediately began evasive maneuvering to get out of her crippled companion's flight path. She barely managed to escape as the frigate pirouetted past. She was also disadvantaged by her evasive maneuver; while it saved her from a punishing collision, she'd wasted valuable time avoiding death that might have been spent attempting to damage her enemies.

With the cruiser at extreme GARDIAN range and turning slowly, the fifty-fifth flotilla was more evenly matched with the remaining geth frigates. The pandemonium of battle continued unabated as the _Stirling Bridge_ took two MAC rounds to her ventral kinetic barriers. Her barriers overtaxed, Commander Pittman was facing a potentially dire situation. Unwilling to risk his ship, he ordered the _Stirling Bridge_ in a full military-thrust burn along their current heading the ship rocketed away from the battle, but the geth were quick to respond and were soon chasing down the frigate with the rest of the triple fives chasing the geth.

Soon as he was clear, Pittman ordered, "Engage FTL!" With a sudden blue-shift, the vessel left everyone in the dust. Behind him, the battle continued, with the geth now attempting to continue to draw the flotilla away from their cruiser and into the cruiser's effective range. Reed ordered the fleet to break off their attack and head straight for the cruiser in a bombing run. Five shots were loosed into the cruiser's barriers, which continued to hold firm. She watched her friendly forces swarm the larger vessel and waited. The frigates finally broke down, giving up on their attempt to attract her away from the cruiser and instead coming to assist it.

The _Bunker Hill_ looped tightly around target alpha before firing at beta, the lead frigate leading the charge back into the fray. The geth frigate was completely unable to avoid the shot, but because the _Hill _had been in a tight, low-velocity turn shortly before, the round did considerably less damage than it might have otherwise.

Reed ordered the remaining ships in her flotilla to concentrate on beta, hoping to take the geth ships down one at a time as quickly as possible, thus lowering the damage they could inflict on the flotilla as quickly as possible. The focused fire approach worked well at first but the geth were prepared for this. They ordered beta to hide behind the cruiser's considerable bulk by flying in tight arcs, not unlike what she had done earlier. Unable to get clear firing solutions for long, her flotilla's applied damage to the enemy was falling. She changed targets, specifying delta as the primary target. Beta and delta quickly switched places, as she suspected they would. The cruiser was beginning to be considerably dangerous instead of simply a temporary threat. The considerable GARDIAN fire it was throwing up and the geth frigates using it as cover was preventing her flotilla from being effective and getting the results they needed. _The more protracted this battle becomes_, Ashley mused,_ the more the odds fall in their favor. Typical geth fleet mentality. How can I get around this? What if I concentrated on removing the cruiser? It would leave the frigates free to harass us, which is bad in the long term—but so is the status quo. If this gamble pays off and we disable and destroy the cruiser fast enough, the battle swings back in our favor into a more balanced engagement._

"All ships concentrate on alpha. Formation beta-six on _Bunker Hill_. Mrs. Knight, straighten our course on one six seven mark six six."

"Aye, Captain," came the pilot's reply.

Corman Wells realized what his captain was doing. "Ma'am, the frigates will have open-season on our ships if we don't continue to pressure them!"

"It won't matter if we continue to pressure them," Reed countered. "they'll win any battle of attrition here."

"As you say, Ma'am." Wells replied, trusting his CO. He'd seen her lead her flotilla to victory time and time again. She had a knack for fleet engagements and command. He hoped she was right about this, as well.

The five remaining Systems Alliance frigates pulled into a tight group in short order, heading almost directly out and away from the cruiser. Reed continued, "Attack pattern gamma. Fill that cruiser with lead! Hard about to starboard in three count. Three. Two. One. Alter course!" The frigates turned hard to their right together, only straightening their course once they were facing the cruiser head on. The ships began accelerating at full acceleration and Corman Wells watched the distance to target alpha dwindle extremely quickly.

He rattled off the numbers as they got close to the ideal distance for the attack run. "Distance to target 30 kilometers. Twenty five. Twenty. Sixteen—" His voice rose in concern as they continued to close.

"Fire! Scramble Four!" Reed ordered, slamming a fist on the railing at her post. The five ships launched mass accelerator rounds then all broke off in a tight y-axis spin taking them down the galactic z-axis. The ships kept in formation with little issue and Reed watched the distance open back up on the holographic depiction of the battle. Her ships continue to head straight for the surface of the holographic table, pursued by relentless enemy frigates.

Liking the results, Ashley decided to order another similar attack run. "Attack pattern gamma-two. Hard to port in three count. Three. Two. One. Divert course!"

As the ships turned hard to port this time, the geth frigates barely managed to scatter before the five ships plowed through them. Distance to alpha began to fall rapidly once again. Corman studied his screen carefully, anticipating what came next. "Range to target, 25 kilometers. 20. 14. 9."

Gamma-two operated in tighter ranges and left less room for error. If ever there was a time to keep things tight; now was the time. With a silent count in her head, Ashley ordered the frigates to fire. "Fire! Scramble Seven!"

The projectiles were a scant second free of the frigate's MAC barrel before they slammed into the cruiser's kinetic barriers, lighting them up with raw destructive power. The additional time spent accelerating imparted further kinetic energy, making this salvo the most powerful one yet applied to the ship's barriers. It was only a matter of time until forces this powerful overwhelmed the cruiser's barriers. The ships broke off frantically to avoid collisions of their own with the cruiser, each along different paths that made a starburst-like effect combining the explosion on the cruiser's barriers with the thruster trails of the retreating vessels. Ashley ordered the flotilla to reform on her ship's wing as soon as possible to continue pressing her attack. Now was the time of truth; if the cruiser lost its kinetic barriers now, it would either retreat or be destroyed. Either way, it put her flotilla in a much better position tactically.

A series of less-powerful beta runs were next, hoping that some quicker maneuvering and less damage per projectile would be sufficient change to keep the geth from anticipating their moves. As the _Stalingrad_ stormed past the cruiser after firing her round, the kinetic barriers faltered, betraying their weak status. The _Dunbar_ was next to commit to a run at the cruiser, and its round scored a gouge across the hull without penetrating very deeply. Countless compartments were opened to space in an instant and an entire deck began to depressurize. Because of the nature of the gouge straddling so many compartments, a large portion of the geth ship's affected deck had to be cut off by blast shield doors.

Corman reported with a smile, "Captain, detecting a mass effect envelope forming around the cruiser. They're attempting to flee into FTL."

"All ships target alpha's engines." Reed commanded. The ships fired and several direct hits took out every single major sublight thruster on the ship. With all sublight basically disabled, the FTL core was helpless to drive the ship out of danger. It finished lowering the mass inside its envelope to sufficient levels for FTL flight, but without any significant forward locomotion remaining, the ship stayed exactly where it was.

Reed nodded. "All ships to course three-six-eight mark three-one-seven. Stay behind the cruiser and open up your range to alpha to +50 kilometers. Concentrate on the geth frigates once clear of the cruiser's GARDIAN defenses."

A significant part of her problem resolved, Ashley had to return to pressuring the frigates before they overwhelmed her own. Now that the cruiser was stuck out of GARDIAN range, its lasers were no longer assisting the geth frigates in scoring the ablative armor of the frigates. And since it couldn't propel itself easily at all with its damage, the cruiser could not exploit the fact Ashley had just ordered her flotilla to medium range to fire its powerful MAC on her ships.

Beta was first to go after the cruiser, still having low kinetic barriers from before. Soon as they dropped, the _Bannockburn_ delivered a fatal blow to finish it off completely. The geth were still fighting, however, as Ashley expected. Every single geth aboard those ships were completely socialist, caring only for the continuation of the geth in general and not caring about sacrificing itself for that goal. As the attack on delta began to show results, the heat management personnel aboard the _Bunker Hill_ reported the ship was approaching dangerous levels of heat from all its maneuvering, firing of its weapon, and use of its kinetic barrier generators at full power.

Ashley was not amused by the news. "Can you give me a few more minutes?" She asked, exacerbated.

"Captain, heat levels are already within 2 of being unable to use FTL. A few more minutes of this and the whole crew will have a lot in common with a cooked meal!"

Reed snarled at the timing, so close to her seeing the end of this pitched battle. "_Stalingrad_ has the fleet. _Bunker Hill_ is retreating to radiate." Closing her microphone on the flotilla-wide channel, she listened as Commander Lynn acknowledged and took control. Addressing Corman, Captain Reed ordered, "Get us out of here, Commander. Ahead one-half FTL."

"One-half FTL, aye. Helm, retract thrusters for FTL. Spin drive for one-half FTL."

"Drive is spinning up, Commander." Lieutenant Knight replied. "Ready to engage in five." She continued working her controls while the core spun up the necessary mass effect field. "Mark."

"Engage thrusters." Corman Wells ordered. The _Bunker Hill_ left the battlefield behind, heading for empty space where she could radiate the heat building up in her hull without being interrupted or the heat radiation being spotted for years as it only propogated at the speed of light.

A short time later the _Hill_ dropped from FTL and disengaged everything they could safely lose; all combat systems were taken offline, the engines were disabled, unnecessary sensors and other secondary systems. With the heat generation cut down, the ceramic strips across the frigate's outer hull could begin to make progress in radiating the deadly amounts of heat building up on the ship instead of the levels continuing to rise to the point that the crew compartments began to heat up themselves.

One systems heat analyst stood up from his post and conferred with several others before coming to Captain Reed, standing below her near Corman Wells as he stood in front of a CIC console. "Captain, the diffuse radiator arrays across the hull have been damaged by sustained exposure to GARDIAN fire. We've lost almost 20 of our heat dissipation capacity. We'll be stuck here a while, and we won't have the best heat endurance for the rest of this campaign without some time in a shipyard for repair and replacement. I can only guess the state of our ablative armor at this point."

"I need this ship cooled within the hour," Ashley calmly demanded. "How do we make that happen?"

The technician thought about the dilemma for a few moments before coming upon the solution. "If we accelerate slowly with maneuvering thrusters, get ourselves a mere meter per second squared in a straight line, we can initiate the droplet heat sink system. It's more effective than the ceramic DRA system even when the strips are at 100, but it only works under sustained use if we recapture the majority of the liquid sodium and recycle it back into the droplet tanks. Using the droplet system during the battles thus far in this campaign have already lost us 18 of our liquid sodium."

"Let's do it. Mrs. Knight, engage maneuvering thrusters until we reach 20 meters per second or more. Once we're up to speed, we'll engage the droplet heat sink."

The _Bunker Hill_ accelerated slowly with her least-heat-generating thruster system. Once the constant straight-line acceleration was implemented, the heat technicians engaged the droplet system. Nozzles on the exterior of the bow of the ship released millions of micrometer-scale droplets of liquid sodium that had been run throughout the ship to collect its heat. As the ship accelerated past the droplets, they radiated their heat into space. Soon as they reached the back of the ship, the sodium droplets were sucked back inside the system and reused.

Damien had been reassigned to the CIC security for a brief rotation. He had overheard the captain and the technician discussing the heat problem, and it sparked his memory from when he had asked Gabrielle how warships withstood their high heat generation for such a prolonged period of time for a battle. So long as the _Bunker Hill_ kept going straight, her droplet system worked with a near 100 recovery rate of the liquid sodium, meaning she could sink her heat this way almost indefinitely. With the increased surface area of the millions of droplets, the radiation efficiency was increased and the system could sink tens of times the amount of heat the thin ceramic DRA strips were sinking. Unfortunately, heat production during a battle was high enough to require the use of the droplet system, and every time the ship altered course, droplets were lost, not recaptured and recycled back into the system. Thus the droplet system was usually a short-term solution that could not be used permanently, forcing military starships to use both diffuse radiator arrays and the droplet heat sink system.

The comm officer in the CIC received a coded message. He read it over and quickly reread it aloud for the Captain's benefit. "Ma'am, FTL comm signal from the _Stalingrad_. Reads: 'All enemy forces destroyed. Ordering all ships to reconvene at following coordinates as soon as able.'"

"That's a weight off my chest," Ashley admitted privately to her XO, standing down and over to her immediate left.

"Mine as well," he assured her. "I'll let you know when our heat levels have returned to nominal."

"Thank you, Commander." Reed replied, stepping down from her vantage point in front of the holographic map. "You have the deck, Mr. Wells."

Overhearing their words, the _Bunker Hill_ virtual intelligence came over the speakers. "Logged: The commanding officer stands relieved. XO Wells has the deck."Damien looked around, surprised at the sudden emergence of a disembodied voice. As Captain Reed walked past, Damien questioned her. "Who was that?"

She gave him a puzzled look. "Who was who?" She asked, smiling.

Damien shot her a quick glare to let her know how impressed he was with her witty remark. "That—voice. The ship? She just told us XO Wells 'has the deck'."

Understanding flooded Ashley's face. "Oh! That's the _Bunker Hill_ VI. The virtual intelligence that helps us maintain the ship, analyze status, come up with repair and maintenance schedules. She knows this ship better than our chief engineer, but don't mention it to Lieutenant Allshouse if you want to remain on friendly terms." She smiled knowingly.

Damien was surprised she was already knowledgeable about Gabrielle and himself. It wasn't like they were dating—they were merely spending time together on a ship as big as a data pad. Then realization struck him. _Of course she knows—everybody knows. It's not like there's any way they can _not_ notice who hangs out with who on a ship this small._

"Actually, I've been meaning to have a conversation with you about the two of you."

"Oh?" Damien was very suspicious that she was going to disallow it right here and now, but kept his tone as noncommittal as possible, hoping against hope he would be wrong.

"I heard you saved her life recently. I want to thank you deeply for that. But I also feel I should warn you. I feel it's necessary because when I put that together with how you spend an awful lot of time in engineering for someone who _isn't_ an engineer, it paints a potentially complicated picture."

"Is this you telling me to stay away from Lieutenant Allshouse?" Damien purposely used her rank to distance himself in the conversation.

"No. Not entirely." Ashley motioned to Corman Wells. Loudly so he could hear, she informed him, "I'm borrowing him. He'll be back in a few minutes."

Cormon nodded and Ashley indicated Damien should follow her down the stairs to deck two. He did so, a half a pace behind her and to her left. The narrow passageway made it uncomfortable to walk exactly side by side. Damien put them back on topic quickly. "So what are you saying?"

"I know this is a trial of us just as much as it is a trial of you. From what I've seen from you so far, I value your participation as a part of this crew. I want that to continue. It's only fair, though, that I hold you to the same standard as any member of the crew. You're not military, I can't apply military anti-fraternization rules to you unless things get out of hand. So I'm warning you, keep things contained."

"Contained." Damien repeated, implying a question.

"Personally, if I can speak off the record for a moment," She waited for Damien to nod before continuing, "I always thought the military was wrong about forcing sexual beings to ignore their libidos. It's a hard thing to ask of any human. But I respect the laws and I do see some wisdom in what they were hoping to accomplish.

"Back on the record here." Having reached the bottom step, the two continued their conversation while turning towards Reed's quarters. "Coupling up is not a problem if you can handle knowing your partner may risk her life for the sake of the mission. You have to compartmentalize, but if thousands of years of espionage has taught humanity anything, it's that as a race we're very capable of that. No, the real problem is with relationships that stop working. People who have a falling out and yet have to work around each other regardless. It hurts morale and it can be potentially dangerous if either is unwilling or unable to put it aside for the sake of the ship and the mission.

"It's something you probably have only realized recently. Everyone in the military takes an oath to protect and serve and from day one, you put a lot of things aside for the sake of that service. The mission becomes more important than the soldier. It's the way things have to be done if we are going to do more than spin our FTL's while going nowhere. Because ultimately, the mission's completion saves more lives, usually civilian lives, allowing them their freedoms and security."

"I understand what you're saying," Damien began, trying to order his thoughts to make his point concretely. "And I thank you for the warning. But I'm not military, and I understand what I'm doing."

"Be sure that you do," Reed interjected. "I need to know you aren't blinded to your own folly. I need to hear you say, with a clear head, you understand that serving on my ship means personal things stay personal and you can be professional regardless of whatever future situation you find yourself in."

"Then consider it said," Damien replied. "Captain, I think you underestimate a civilian's understanding of military sacrifice. I will do whatever I can to save innocent lives and the human way of life. I've been doing that already through my work as a witness relocation agent. Believe me, I feel a great burden to protect everyone I can. I will never lose sight of that, no matter what happens."

"Great." Ashley replied. The two had arrived at her quarters' door, pausing outside to conclude their conversation. "That's all, Damien. You be careful, and no PDA. Clear?"

"Yes, Captain." Damien smiled.

Ashley was less enthusiastic. "I certainly hope so; time will tell. Don't disappoint me, Damien. Dismissed." Damien nodded curtly and walked away. Ashley watched his retreating form for a moment before turning to her door, punching the authorization controls and opening it up. She locked it behind her and took a deep breath.

"Seems my gut's afraid there's nothing but trouble on the horizon, both with the crew and with the mission." She told herself. "Nerves," she dismissed her fears as illogical. "Just do your job. Lead your men and women. Keep the ship a tight knit crew. Things will work out in the end."

Staring at her empty bed a moment, she sighed to herself. "Wish I had a distraction," She admitted ruefully to herself. "I'm under enough stress as it is." She spun around and took a seat on one corner, interfacing her omni-tool to the console a few meters away parked on a desk. The console's visual interface lit up the dark room and a soft technological humming started up, helping create a subdued mood. She punched a few commands into the omni-tool before powering it down. As her tool disengaged, the room's speakers began playing melodic classical music for her. She flopped back onto the bed, bouncing her a little before the sudden movement settled down. She closed her eyes, rubbing her temples. "Maybe I need to visit the doc. She's probably surprised I haven't been there already; I usually am whenever we're on important missions like this."

The oboe and flute were the only reply to her query.

- - - - -


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

The Triple Fives flotilla met back up and proceeded further into the star system, using a nearby gas giant as cover to prevent their discovery by the larger geth patrol which was no doubt by now already ordered to stop them. Having barely won against the patrol, Captain Reed understood the chances were slim of surviving another encounter as all hunting parties would be set up specifically to out-gun her flotilla and destroy it before the rest of humanity's forces could arrive in the system.

As the ships came around the gas giant, she was greeted with the first look at the particulars of the system. Even from a distance, she could spot several worlds with water that looked like they might be habitable, structures in orbit, and realized for the first time just how deep into geth territory they really were. This was no forward shipyard or tiny lookout outpost. This was a geth colony, most likely. As her ships scanned the immediate vicinity, the watchman reported, "Ma'am, detecting several FTL signatures—I see five ships less than one light-second away. They're closing on our position."

"Any read on classifications?" Ashley questioned him.

"I will once they close the distance," The watchman replied. "They're only registering on passive sensors. They'll be inside active-LADAR range in forty seconds."

"All hands, battle stations." She ordered.

Corman Wells immediately stepped into his role as executive officer. "Droplet heat system on standby; bring the MAC online and load it. Prepare to raise kinetic barriers to maximum protection. VI, warn the crew we're about to lose artificial gravity in thirty seconds."

The _Bunker Hill_'s female voice persona came over the speakers on all decks. "All hands secure to stations. Artificial gravity will be removed in twenty-eight seconds." Damien, standing beside Lieutenant Morgan at the time of the first call to battle stations, looked curiously to his squad leader. She indicated he should follow her and the two ran quickly to the locker room and began suiting up in full armor.

She explained while throwing on her armor at a near inhuman rate, "Warships usually deactivate artificial gravity in situations where heat management is key. So far, the Captain's kept it on because we've had a whole fleet worth of backup and manageable heat buildup. Seems she's changed her mind this time."

Damien struggled quickly in securing the armor and grabbed the boots, throwing them on last. Alyssa was finished only a few seconds before he was. "So how do I keep from slamming into nearby walls when the ship really starts accelerating?" He asked, worried.

"Use the railing, and get to our stations as quickly as possible. Every station has attachments to hold you in place comfortably so you can work without flying about the cabin."

"I see," Damien replied.

The VI's sweet voice calmly cut off further discussion with her own countdown. "Five seconds. Four. Three. Two. One. Zero. Warning; artificial gravity is offline." Alyssa indicated the nearest bar, grabbing it with both hands, using it to move through the locker room. Damien did the same and the two assailed the pole using only their hands, heading straight into the mako bay. She indicated a couple of empty seats along a nearby wall. Other marines, all of which Damien had come to recognize by face if not by name, were already similarly attached into seats. "So what are we doing down here?" Damien asked quietly. "Waiting for the bad guys to come in the mako door?"

"Not necessarily," Alyssa replied, stifling a laugh that threatened her professional veneer. "Here the vast majority of the marines aboard the ship stay out of the way, stay safe, and are ready to disembark through the mako hanger if we end up deciding to stage a ground invasion. You got everything?"

Damien quickly checked himself over: _pistol, all armor pieces and parts, medic supplies._ "Yeah." He secured himself in a previously empty chair next to Alyssa. Suddenly he felt pressed to his left side as the _Bunker Hill_ began accelerating quite quickly. "Sure would like to know what's going on," He added ruefully. "The marines posted to the CIC must be enjoying themselves, getting to watch the battle on that huge table hologram."

"Could be said _they're_ the unlucky ones," Alyssa replied. "They can join the rest of the command staff in being completely stressed out about with knowing how badly the battle is faring. For us, we just get to ride along and enjoy the bliss of ignorance to our real situation."

"Bliss, huh?" Damien asked rhetorically. He felt the ship begin a high-powered turn. More privately to himself, he asserted, "I'd hate to see what she would consider torture."

On the bridge, Ashley watched as LADAR identified the targets, displaying more detailed information next to the holographic representation of their position. With a smile, she realized they'd happened upon a geth transport with troops and a helium-3 tanker, with only 3 frigates as escort. She quickly ordered her flotilla to engage, putting aside her fear it might end up being a trap for the once in a long while chance to inflict heavy enemy casualties with nothing but a small frigate flotilla. Outnumbering the escort two to one, she wisely chose the geth troop transport as her first target, disabling it before it could turn away and spin up its FTL. The frigates fought viciously, but they were no better armed than her frigates, making the fight to disable the enemy frigate's kinetic barriers a prolonged battle of attrition, giving Captain Reed all the time she and her flotilla would need to take out the high-profile targets.

As the transport fell to the combined firepower of her flotilla, more FTL flashes were recorded. The watchman reported the additional sensor contacts. "Captain, six more targets jumped in at medium range. Geth cruisers!"

"Scramble seven!" She replied. "All ships, break off attack and spin up your FTL's. It's a trap!"

Before much of anything could be done, the cruisers opened fire at their optimal range. Easily placing their bow along a straight line to their targets, the range heavily favored the cruisers. Their powerful MAC's opened fire, one cruiser targeting each of Reed's frigates. The _Bunker Hill_ received punishing hits from high-velocity rounds, imparting significant kinetic energy to the ship's barriers, which began to lose integrity alarmingly quickly.

"Comm, send a priority message to the fleet—we've engaged the geth, heavy resistance." Reed commanded, watching the battle quickly swinging out of her control. "Mr. Wells, how long to FTL?"

"Retract thrusters for FTL configuration." Corman called out. "Drive is spinning up now—seventy percent."

The _Bunker Hill_ VI's voice accompanied another heavy hit from a geth cruiser. "Warning, kinetic barriers at 10. Integrity will be lost during the next volley."

"The _moment_ the drive is ready I want us out of here!" Reed ordered. She saw the cruiser assigned to her ship fire another round, covering the distance between the ships in less than a second. A sudden lurch as the projectile hit, disabling the kinetic barriers before they could completely negate the projectile's kinetic energy. The weapon hit the hull above the Tantalus drive core, gouging the armor worse than any GARDIAN laser ever could. The lurch made Damien down in the mako bay feel like he was being lifted from his chair, held back only by restraints. The fierce groaning of tearing superstructure could be heard throughout the small frigate.

A disconcertingly calm voice called out, "Warning, kinetic barriers are now offline. Warning, hull rupture detected. Warning, hull integrity compromised below acceptable FTL parameters. Taking the FTL core offline immediately."

Lieutenant Knight's controls indicated the drive core was ready. She pressed forward with full military thrust, hoping to launch the ship out of harm's way as quickly as possible. The _Bunker Hill_ groaned under the strain of the fierce acceleration; if not for the mass lowering envelope, the structure would have continued to rip down the back of the ship. Suddenly, the envelope was allowed to return to normal mass, making the _Bunker Hill_ leave FTL less than a second after entering it. The ship was still in effective range of the cruisers.

The _Bunker Hill's_ watchman noticed more FTL flashes. Transponders indicated the fifth fleet forces had arrived. The fleet had been only a short distance behind their forward patrol flotilla, waiting for their report. Hackett apparently ordered a rescue, as the enter fleet including the dreadnoughts came out of FTL and wasted no time to open fire on the surprised geth forces.

The geth frigates quickly pursued the _Bunker Hill_, knowing that without kinetic barriers she would be an easy kill within seconds. Their pursuit took them to extreme range compared to the Alliance dreadnoughts. The _Fuji_ began a to turn her bow to face the frigates as quickly as the massive vessel could turn, using a minor mass-lowering field to help facilitate the process. Soon as the bow came to directly face the far-away frigates, the _Fuji_ opened fire. The massive round was propelled the entire length of the kilometers-long mass accelerator cannon, gaining more kinetic energy than any smaller vessel could create. Despite the extreme distance to target, the speed more than made up for it and the round slammed into the frigate before the geth aboard even saw it coming. In an instant, their kinetic barriers were overwhelmed and the remaining energy of the projectile transferred into the ship's armored hull. It bore a hole directly through the frigate from aft to bow, splitting the vessel into pieces.

The other geth frigates were immediately forced to take evasive maneuvers to ensure the _Fuji_ would not get another easy, clean shot at them. This extended their intercept courses greatly, buying the _Bunker Hill_ more time.

Aboard the _Hill_, Gabrielle was investigating the damage report in more detail, interacting with the VI on the screen built into one of engineering's walls. The VI had disabled FTL travel by means of a simple software check on hull integrity. Gabrielle could order an override, but the VI was right—any attempt to use FTL with integrity at the current level would quickly end in the suicide of the _Bunker_ _Hill_ and everyone aboard.

Gabrielle ordered the VI, "Deploy repair drones. Have them stitch up the worst damage here." She pointed to a spot on the dorsal side of the ship where the MAC round had hit. "And make it snappy. The geth will be here momentarily."

"CIC to engineering, what's the report on FTL?"

"Captain, I can't allow us to use the FTL drive until we've had a chance to repair some of the damage and restore a sufficient level of hull integrity. I've commanded the VI to launch all repair drones and begin patching up our hurt, but I have no idea how long it will take them. We need 75 hull integrity before the FTL will unlock. Good news is that the drive is still operating and as soon as the hull is repaired, we can enter FTL."

"What about entering a planetary atmosphere? Can the hull handle that right now?"

"Yes," Gabrielle decided, investigating the damage. "It's contained on the dorsal side of the ship. So long as you don't take us in upside-down, we'll be fine."

Reed quickly decided on a course of action. "We've detected geth weapons platforms around all inhabited planets, but they're engaging the dreadnoughts only at the moment. If we land on the surface, we can stage a ground assault on the nearest platforms' control room."

"Ma'am, kinetic barriers are still minimal—one percent at most. One hit will take us out—and any AA gun will kill us without warning."

"Understood." Reed replied. To her helmsman, she ordered, "Lieutenant Knight, take us down into Raskivh'nos' atmosphere. Steer clear of the AA and find us a location we can deploy all marine units."

"Aye, Captain." The female pilot replied, quickly taking the _Bunker Hill_ past the orbital weapons and towards the surface.

"We need more men on the ground—Captain Reed to all ships in my flotilla: work your way past the orbital weapons on Raskivh'nos and deploy marines to take part in a ground assault on the control room."

The_ Bunker Hill_ came in low and fast, keeping under the RADAR and staying clear of the AA emplacements. She came to rest over a beach, the thick tree line preventing her from finding a closer drop point to the objective.

Damien was surprised to hear the Captain's orders over the comm as the mako door opened. He quickly unbuckled from his seat and helped the marines set up all the rappelling lines before rappelling to the surface. As his feet hit the sand, he detached from the line and ran away from the drop point, leaving room for the soldiers following him to rappel. All marines currently on the surface helped set up a defensive perimeter along the beach to protect the drop point. Soon as all marines were planet side, the _Bunker Hill_ quickly veered around 180 degrees and headed out to sea.

Alyssa Morgan took charge quickly and easily, a quintessential veteran of command. "Alright listen up people we're outnumbered and outgunned here, so no heroics. Play it smart and conserve your weapons. My squad has point, everyone fall in line behind us and keep your eyes on the look out for the geth recon fliers. Our target is six klicks due east; but we'll be fighting the whole way there."

"Oorah!" The marines yelled, quickly falling in line as Damien, Victor, and Alyssa struck off into the forest. Within minutes, they heard the whine of geth fliers approaching. The marines took cover behind the trees, quickly aiming their weapons in the direction of the sound.

The fliers came at a breakneck pace, sent suicidally to their doom in order to report enemy strength. The marines quickly opened fire and destroyed the small flying craft before their tiny automatic machine guns could do any serious damage in return. Damien's biotic flared with anticipation as Alyssa ordered everyone out of cover and began to advance once again. She set a daring pace, knowing with all the geth they would have to fight through, the timetable of taking out the control room was several hours at a minimum. Marine contingents from the _Stalingrad_ and _Bannockburn_ met up with Alyssa's forces and the three platoons continued their advance to the east. The contingents aboard the _Sterling Bridge_, _Dunbar_, and_ Yorktown_ found an agreeable drop point west of the facility, far closer to the objective, but needed to ascend over a moderate mountain to get to the other side.

The blaring engines of a geth dropship flew straight overhead of Damien and the others. Soon as it was ahead of them, it began dropping geth as carelessly as it might drop bombs. The primarily geth shock trooper forces would impact the ground harshly, then unfold from a protective ball and rise to their feet, pulling their assault rifles, taking cover, and beginning to attack. Alyssa's team advanced as far forward as she dared, leaving a good 15 to 20 meters between the two forces. The other marines were close behind, darting from cover to cover and returning fire.

Damien used his biotics to lift a geth shock trooper unlucky enough to expose itself to his line of sight a moment too long. The geth failed about comically, getting trapped in the branches of the trees above, held in place. As the field wore off, the geth found itself hanging by a single leg tangled in the branches, but managed to quickly adjust and fire on the Alliance marines while upside down. Victor Stall plugged its flashlight head with his assault rifle.

The marines quickly flanked the geth shock troopers on their left, making it harder to for them to find cover that was adequate. They were quickly routed and the last trooper was slain, allowing the marines to continue towards their objective. Victor privately conferred with his CO as they progressed deeper into the forest.

"Those troopers were never meant to take us all down," He whispered. Everyone was quiet as they waited for signs of more geth.

Alyssa nodded. "It was a stall tactic hoping to score a few lucky kills. They need more time to solidify their position and the troopers bought them that time."

"Makes you wonder what they'll have waiting for us when we get out of these woods."

"If they're smart, and we know that they are, they'll have pretty much everything right there so the minute we leave the forest we're finished."

"Any thoughts on how we're going to deal with that?"

"Yes," She answered without explanation. Instead, she got on her secure radio with the rest of the marines, sending a navigation marker to their heads-up displays in their helmets. "Squads three through seven I want you to break off and head southeast. Come up on the base from the south. Squads one and two are going to proceed along the original approach just so the geth don't realize what we're doing. Acknowledge order and break off immediately."

A series of nonverbal winks of the 'ready' lights next to the other squads' leaders' name in her HUD confirmed they received her order and understood it. The marines immediately began to disperse. The other ships' marines copied her move, sending two squads straight in and the rest south-east.

The quiet progress continued, but Alyssa's team began advancing slower so the marines ordered to approach via the south would have the time they needed to get into position. It was a relaxed, steady pace that threatened to put Damien into a complacent mood. The idyllic forest scene did little to remind him of the dangers on this world. He had to remind himself twice that this was anything but a casual walk in a forest.

Morgan's team ran into two more patrols, but managed to wipe them out almost as quickly as they were spotted, making sure to spread out the marines behind her to give the impression that she still had her full fighting force right behind her.

One kilometer from the objective, the tree line became visible. The marines quietly approached, keeping themselves as concealed as possible while they investigated what laid beyond. The compound was in sight; it was heavily fortified with anti-aircraft weapons, infantry defenses, and a lot of geth footsoldiers. There were two armatures and a colossus walking on their four feet, ever alert. Damien spotted a few geth serving as lookouts and snipers in towers surrounding the compound. He indicated "snipers" to Alyssa, who nodded and sheathed her shotgun, pulling her sniper rifle. She ordered other marines to do likewise and began scoping for targets. She identified five sniper nests, all occupied. Damien watched her calm steady hands as she took aim on her first victim. She gave the signal and opened fire, killing a sniper instantly. The other marines with sniper rifles did likewise, and in less than four seconds all snipers were dispatched.

The defenders went on full alert, immediately firing random suppressing fire into the tree line, hoping to drive back the Systems Alliance snipers. Thanks to the plentiful cover and the distance between the tree line and the geth, they couldn't reliably apply pressure to Alyssa's squad. The snipers pressed this distance advantage, continuing to nail geth beyond 200 meters. The forces not immediately killed shook off their momentary surprise and covered up in bunkers and behind various other solid objects in between themselves and their enemy. Fire continued to be exchanged, but neither side lost another man.

The colossus and armatures diverted their course, closing on the general area from which the hostile snipers were positioned. The large anti-tank geth reared up, straightening on their front two legs, preparing to fire their heavy plasma weapons.

As the blue plasma rocketed towards the tree line, Alyssa called out for everyone to take cover. Given the slow speed of the plasma shots, everyone had sufficient time to duck down behind the dirt and trees, far enough away that the plasma and its splash damage would miss them. With a powerful roar, the shots hit trees and snapped their thick trunks in half, causing the top halves to wobble and fall down, throwing sticks and leaves everywhere. Damien even noticed a few pieces of bark thrown from the explosion land on his arms. The dirt fell right along with the bark, showering him. He ducked his head instinctively to protect his eyes.

Alyssa ordered the marines to concentrate on the geth tanks. It would take a lot of firepower to bring down their strong kinetic barriers, and the slow rate of fire of a sniper rifle was not going to provide her with enough. Although she was less confident with the assault rifle than her sniper and shotgun, she pulled it out for its midrange dominance. Damien barely peaked over the crest of the side of the gully he was hiding inside, aiming his pistol at one of the smaller armatures. He squeezed the trigger, struggling to manage the weapon recoil and keep it pointed at his target. The pistol was made for short bursts of sustained fire, and responded accordingly, peppering the air with its bullets. He saw the armature's shields alight as they defended the tank from his small arms fire and wondered briefly if a pistol could do anything to the armor of that beast once the kinetic barriers were worn down. He also knew once the armature was in range, he was going to biotically pin it to the ground with a mass-increasing mass effect field. He was fairly certain the metal behemoth wouldn't be able to shrug _that_ off.

His pistol complained audibly at him as it ceased firing. He brought it back down to his side, feeling the heat coming off the weapon as it got close to his body. He waited for it to settle back down before peeking over his cover again, and resumed firing. The armature was just about at the extreme of his effective biotic range—but he figured allowing it to get closer and more accurate with its deadly plasma weapon would be a poor choice. He pointed his left hand at the geth, arm fully extended, and moved it down, with the palm facing the dirt. His biotic corona flared brightly around him as he poured as much energy as he dared into the maneuver. The purple biotics surrounded the geth armature, increasing its mass until it grew too heavy for its legs to fight against the planet's gravity. It crumpled to the ground. Damien called out over the radio channel, "One armature biotically subdued. I recommend we kill it before it gets back on its feet!"

Alyssa got on the radio as well, "All marines concentrate fire on the armature currently taking a dirt nap. I want those kinetic barriers disabled already!"

The marines concentrated their fire on the momentarily helpless geth target. Its kinetic barriers dissolved under the projectile hailstorm and bullets began hitting the armored hull. Armed with armor-piercing rounds, their weapons began to chew holes into the geth's tough metal hide, tearing at the internal machines that allowed the armature to operate. Damien's biotic field gave away and the geth immediately got back on its feet, charging up a plasma bolt. Damien aimed his pistol right at its flashlight head, right where the plasma shot was about to emerge. The building blue charge dissipated as the geth took critical damage to its main weapon and it wavered on its feet before crashing back to the ground again. The marines continued to fire on it where it lay, verifying it was indeed damaged beyond repair. They switched to the second armature, who was now within thirty meters and could potentially start hitting marines with its immensely powerful plasma weapon. One semi-direct hit and a marine with full kinetic barriers could be killed. It was also hard to hide from a weapon powerful enough it was made to take on other heavily armored tanks.

Damien didn't give the armature a chance to slaughter his fellow marines. He crushed it to the ground the same way he'd done with the first, making it so heavy it couldn't even properly raise its head in their direction. The marines followed Alyssa Morgan's lead, now targeting this armature. Its kinetic barriers still operational for the moment, their progress was impossible to tell.

The colossus let out another powerful plasma shot that ripped into the dirt, creating a huge crater and displacing all that earth into the air. The ground shuddered with the strength. As the flying dirt showered the marines, they doggedly kept up their assault on the armature, not wavering or flinching in the least.

Alyssa got on the radio, "Where's our reinforcements?!" She demanded. "We need someone to take the heat off us immediately!"

Her wish was their demand, as the marines sent to approach from the south reached the compound, taking cover at the tree line and firing sniper rounds into the geth footsoldiers. The geth were momentarily confused as to how Morgan's team was able to get good shots on the soldiers even as they used cover effectively, but soon realized they were being flanked. The remaining soldiers began to retreat, attempting to find better cover from both enemy locations.

Damien's biotics wore off as the armature's kinetic barriers fell. Morgan and her team were forced to concentrate their entire attention on the tanks or they'd be overrun and slaughtered by them, so it was up to the southern marines to engage the geth footsoldiers at long range.

The colossus and armature were side-by-side and advancing now. Damien, unable to put together a strong enough mass effect field to crush or lift either of them again so quickly, instead tried pushing on their legs with a single biotic throw aimed between the two tanks. The hit pushed back their front legs, causing them to dig into the soft earth. They staggered, but remained standing and maintained their balance. Once the force subsided, they resumed their advance. The two geth fired plasma rounds at the same moment, frighteningly close to the marines now. If they got any closer, the tanks would have clear shots that no one would be able to avoid in time to save their own lives.

Calling on his determination, Damien pressed the colossus into the ground this time, as it would be more deadly at close range. The marines continued pressing the defenseless armature, ripping into its armored chassis. It bucked under direct impacts to important internal systems but tried to get off another plasma shot before it fell. Alyssa pulled her shotgun, running out of her cover and leveling the close-range weapon at the armatures face even as she gave a bloodcurdling war cry. She pulled the trigger once, still running towards the armature, who's face was beginning to light up with the build up of another plasma shot. Her second shot came almost point-blank at the geth's face, blowing it clean off. The husk fell to the ground lifeless, incapable of further harm. Alyssa quickly retreated, Damien calling upon everything he had to keep the colossus down a little longer, and buy her the time to get back into cover. Just as she dove behind the tree line, the biotic field wore off and the colossus began to get back up on its feet.

Although feeling strained, Damien knew the the colossus would be at its least balanced as it worked to get back up on its feet. He threw a biotic shove at one of the first feet the colossus planted, sliding it out from under it. The synthetic fell on its face once again, further prolonging its effort to get back on its feet.

Over the radio came a plea for help. "Lieutenant Morgan, we've got geth fliers inbound on our position. Rocket and assault flavors. We need fire support, south of the compound!"

Alyssa, catching her breath from her full-out sprint, got back on the radio. "We're tied up with a geth colossus here, you'll have to hold them off yourselves!"

The colossus was back up on its feet now. It charged a plasma bolt and fired, obliterating a tree right as its base, causing the entire thing to fall over. The tree hit the colossus on its way down, rolling off its back to its right side and landing with a crash on the ground. Switching to a fully-automatic machine gun, the colossus threw a hailstorm of bullets not unlike what Damien had seen a geth prime throw out at the listening post.

The large caliber bullets cut through tree trunks and kept going, forcing the marines to duck down lower into depressions in the ground to avoid the storm. Alyssa kept using her shotgun as the range was close regardless, and hid every time the colossus swung its weapon back in her direction. Other marines did likewise, never popping up longer than to fire a short burst at the enemy before ducking back behind safety.

The colossus was looking for the most serious threat. Based on analysis of the biotics used against it an its allies, it estimated a 92 chance there was only a single biotic amongst the marines. As the biotic had the best if not only ability to disable it, it prioritized the biotic as the primary target. The rest could be dealt with in time so long as the colossus was no longer being forced to the ground, unable to suppress incoming fire.

Damien's biotic corona was still fully lit, waiting for him to gather enough strength for another crushing attack. Soon as he was ready, he didn't want to wait another second for the biotics to activate. The colossus was continuing suppressive fire, but it would only take him a second of exposure once he was ready to disable it once again, offering the marines a chance to really apply pressure to the target's kinetic barriers.

As tree debris landed all around him, the colossus managed to clear a line of sight through the trees to where Damien was holed up. He ducked a little deeper into the depression in the ground, hoping to hide himself.

The colossus spotted its primary target. It calculated its best chance of a kill was to fire a plasma bolt and use the explosive splash damage to full effect. It reared up, preparing to fire, calculating the best position to shoot where the most splash damage would hit the biotic. Sensors indicated 90 charge and rising quickly. It was only a matter of time now...

A proximity alert went off in its mind. Before it could analyze the threat, a rocket slammed into the left side of its armored face, throwing off its aim just as it fired. The shot went wide right of intended, clearly missing the biotic. Angered, it turned to face another geth—a rocket flier model. The rocket geth continued firing rockets as quickly as its systems allowed it, obviously intent on stopping the colossus. Confused at its traitorous behavior, the colossus reached out through the neural net, but discovered the net was fragmented. There were signs of a dampening field to the south—probably the cause of the fragmentation. Still, this did not explain treachery. Before it could respond, it felt itself growing heavier and working harder to stay upright. With a communication of indignation and frustration over the neural net, it collapsed to the ground, held there by extra mass that had not existed mere moments ago.

Damien smiled as the geth colossus hit the dirt again. There was something satisfying about driving them down until they were forced to eat the dirt. It was like stepping on its oval head, crushing it under foot as easily as he would crush an insect. The euphoric feeling of victory and power overwhelmed his mounting pain from using biotics.

The marines got up from behind their covers and began attacking with everything they had. Several grenades were thrown, exploding and helping to drain the kinetic barriers. The barriers fell in seconds and it began taking hits to its armor. The rocket geth continued punishing attacks on the colossus, the explosives doing more damage than mere bullets. Before the mass effect field wore off, the last geth tank was dead.

Weapons were immediately trained on the rocket flier and uneasy glances were exchanged. Morgan got on the radio, "We just had a rocket flier show up and attack the colossus that was attacking us." She wasn't certain what her question was, so she left it as an open-ended statement. Over the radio, came the response from the teams to the south.

"Thank goodness it worked! Lieutenant, we isolated and dampened the geth neural net, separating the fliers from the rest of the geth population. Then we hacked two rocket fliers and turned them against each other. The two fliers destroyed all the other fliers engaging us. We sent the one that survived the encounter to assist you. I was worried the geth would find and disable the hack once it left our dampening range; you better kill it just in case they're working on recovering control right now."

"Alright," Morgan replied, impressed beyond words. To her marines, she ordered, "Take out that flier while it's sitting still." The marines opened fire. The flier was blown from the sky in seconds, crashing to the ground next to its dead former ally. Soon as the way was clear, she investigated down the open field to the compound with her sniper rifle. "No visual on snipers or other geth footsoldiers. Anyone got anything, wink your readiness signal." Alyssa watched her HUD, waiting for any indicators to flash next to a name on the list of soldiers under her command from the _Bunker Hill_. None flashed. "Alright, then the next step is the compound itself. Let's cover this flat territory as quickly as possible so we aren't caught in the open. All units advance, and meet back up here." She flashed a navigation beacon on the HUD. The marines burst out of the trees, setting a double-timed pace and using former geth cover as soon as they were close enough. The compound was 200 meters away when the full Systems Alliance forces had reconnected and were inspecting the rest of the obstacles remaining before them.

The anti-infantry unmanned weapons platforms gave Alyssa the most trouble. She couldn't rush them; they fired fully-automatic with explosive bullets of a larger caliber than even the geth primes could carry around. Suspended some 20-30 meters in the air, they had an advantageous firing position that would be hard to avoid even with ground cover. They were firmly planted in the ground, permanent fixtures on a wide, strong, armored mast that would be difficult to damage to bring down the weapons.

If Alyssa could, she would order an aerial bombardment of the anti-infantry weapons, but the anti-aircraft weapons atop the control room building itself ruled out all possibility of that. Over the radio, she questioned, "How many combat drones do we have left?"

"I've got two," One marine replied. "Aerial, explosive rounds, they could work."

"One here,"

"One here,"

Another chimed in, "One here."

"Is that all?"Alyssa questioned. No one ventured further assets. She mentally took stock of their situation. _Five aerial drones with explosive rounds. As long as they move erratically and stay at range, they can bombard the anti-infantry guns themselves. Weakest point is the weapon itself; enough damage there will jam it or outright destroy it. But Five drones—they'd better be good at keeping themselves from getting hit by their targets' return fire or we'll lose them all before taking out all the anti-infantry guns._

"Alright, to those of you with a combat drone: Set their VI instructions to avoid damage at all costs, and concentrate on the anti-infantry weapon emplacements. Target the weapons on top; the mast has nothing critical inside it, it merely holds the weapon up high. Tell them to keep their range, too. We can't afford to lose the drones before taking out the anti-infantry guns. Acknowledge." Acknowledgment lights lit up next to the names of the five marines with combat drones.

"Then let's do it. Target nearest one first," She indicated the target on the HUD. A couple minutes later, the Systems Alliance combat drones flew towards their target, taking random vectors to avoid getting hit by the anti-infantry guns as soon as they were spotted. They closed within 50 or so meters, continuing random changes in position to avoid taking hits. The marines behind the drones watched and modified their omni-tools as necessary, but the drones were largely powered by dumbed-down VI intelligence, so they were capable of limited adaptation to battleground situations on their own. The explosive rounds flashed brilliantly against the anti-infantry weapon, gradually tearing past the weapon's armor and damaging vital pieces and parts. With a sudden explosion, the first anti-infantry gun was completely obliterated as its own ammunition exploded inside it. Nothing was left at the top of the mast but a smoking hole, and scattered debris formerly part of the weapon surrounded the mast.

Alyssa indicated the next anti-infantry target and the five marines punched in the commands into their omni-tools. The fliers engaged another weapon, hovering at roughly the same height as the weapon, but far enough away to help them avoid incoming fire. One of the drones fell from the sky as it took a direct hit. All the marines watched, worried about the outcome of this next step. With the anti-infantry weapons out of commission, they stood a chance. Without such luck, they might as well start retreating to dust-off sites.

Another turret exploded, leaving nothing behind. Alyssa indicated a third tower, unconsciously biting her lip slightly. She suddenly noticed Damien was eating some kind of bar. "Hungry, Civvy?" She questioned quietly. He paused, then finished what he was chewing and swallowed, nodding slightly in affirmation.

"Yeah; biotics does that to a guy. Just trying to pack in the carbohydrates I'll be needing when we get inside this place."

"Here," She opened a vest pocket and pulled an identical bar out, handing it to him. He took it after a moment's consideration and she closed the Velcro vest pocket. She returned to watching the battle, trying to distract herself before she laughed at the sheer irony Damien had presented before her, eating in the middle of a battle. _Of course_, she reasoned, _he has a good excuse._

The fliers took considerably longer to kill the third tower with only four drones instead of five. Soon as they were finished, a hole had developed in the building's protective perimeter. She ordered the combat drones to harass a fourth anti-infantry tower while a few squads moved into the opening, proceeding to close on the building.

A rocket trooper and two geth shock troopers used this opportunity to expose themselves from where they were hiding. They engaged the marines advancing on the building, forcing them to run for the nearest cover. The marines took hard impacts on their kinetic barriers and one received a shot to the abdomen. His squad mates helped him take cover with the others and then they engaged the geth, driving them back behind their own cover.

Lieutenant Morgan ran across her line of marines to a better firing position, quickly propping it on a flat level surface and taking aim at the surprise welcoming committee. She took only seconds to line up her shot before letting loose, taking the rocket trooper. The other two geth retreated inside the building, closing the heavy front door behind them. "What's the damage?" She asked the advance squads.

"One injury. Bleeding stopped with medi-gel. He'll need medical attention before the day is through but he's alright for now."

"Good. Send your injured back to our rearguard. Rest of advance team, advance on the compound's front door."

A loud rapport issued forth as a fourth anti-infantry weapon went offline. Alyssa ordered the drones recovered before getting the rest of the ground forces to advance on the compound carefully. As she and Damien rounded a corner, a geth trooper was standing ready to launch a surprise attack. The bullets took their kinetic barriers down quickly, but before they outright failed, Morgan began pumping shotgun shells back at it and Damien lifted it into the air, disabling its ability to attack. The two marines continued firing until it was dead and came crashing back to the surface.

Damien examined his armor readouts. "Ouch," He stated simply. "Glad I have kinetic barriers, that's for damn sure."

"No kidding," Alyssa replied. "Best infantry invention since modern-day armor plating." The horde of invading marines were soon gathered at the front door, the immediate area secured. High-powered explosives were adhered to the door and the marines took cover before detonating. The door came clear off its hinges, leaving the way inside clear. Alyssa ordered all marines inside ASAP to secure the inside of the compound.

The aforementioned two geth shock troopers were the only welcoming committee as the marines secured the first room. They were overwhelmed and dispatched without issue, leaving the Alliance in control of what appeared to be a warehouse, with large doors in the opposite wall for vehicles and gear to be brought inside, as well as enough floorspace to store all the compound's extra equipment. Lights were very dim and red; Damien suspected it was probably optimized for their vision. All the geth he'd seen had blue-looking eyes, meaning anything from the blue part of his visual spectrum would not be easily seen by geth's eyes. If it was indeed lower, there might even be some infrared vision they had access to seeing that Damien could not naturally discern.

"Over here!" Shouted one marine. Damien and Alyssa were the first to run over to examine what the soldier had found.

Underneath a heavy tarp, the marine had found a large skeleton—a geth colossus by the looks of its size. Alyssa's shotgun was leveled almost immediately, but the marine wasn't finished yet. He lead the two over to the front, where the large neck and deadly head of the geth would be. The neck was there, but the head was hallow; there was no blue eye sitting dormant, nor the particulars of a plasma-spewing weapon. Damien bent down on one knee to get a more favorable angle, and looked straight inside the creature's skin, down the neck, seeing various mechanical parts and motors before it became too dark to see further inside.

"It's hallow?" Damien asked, confused. "Like they didn't finish building it, or something?"

Alyssa's eyes narrowed. "They wouldn't have use for a partial colossus, so this thing wasn't shipped here unless they could finish it. This might be a geth manufacturing facility."

"Shit," the marine spat to one side. "What if they're building an army right in the next area. There's a big internal door over there—" he pointed towards one interior wall. "They could move something big and bulky like this carcass here through that door to some manufacturing lines and back again."

Alyssa agreed with his reasoning. "We better find out what surprises the geth have in store, but we need to concentrate on those orbital defenses. The dreadnoughts can't soak up their damage forever."

Over the radio a marine vied for her attention. "Lieutenant Morgan, the AA-guns are wired with explosives. Enough to take out the whole thing. Might cause the roof to cave-in so I thought we should save it for once we're out, then blow it and call in the cavalry."

"Good work, Private." Morgan replied. "Get your ass in here, we're going to press deeper into the facility."

"Roger!" The radio cut out.

Alyssa looked to Damien. "Alright, Civvy, we need to get moving. The geth have already been attacking our fleet for hours; we need to wrap this up before Hackett has to commit all-or-nothing. I personally would prefer he wasn't forced to retreat without us, how about you?"

"Agreed," came his reply. "We going into the manufacturing area next?"

"Yes." Over the HUD, Alyssa indicated her destination and then used the radio to order the marines to move out. They stormed through several doors leading into the next large area and were greeted with the hums and mechanical clanks of working machinery. Geth shock troopers were immediately firing upon the intruders from up on a catwalk. The marines took cover behind the large working equipment and began returning fire. Neither side had much for cover, so it became a race to kill the other side first.

Damien began throwing up as many singularities and biotic throws as he could, ever thankful he'd had some time to recover some energy. The biotic throws hit one, perhaps two geth hard enough to throw them over the catwalk's railing, making them plummet short of 15 meters to their doom. Each singularities helped disable 3-5 more, whipping them about, slamming them into each other and the catwalk's railing. When a singularity wore off, they were usually thrown clear of the catwalk by their tangential velocity, further placing the odds in the Alliance's favor. A minute later, the firing stopped, the silence filled only by the working machinery.

"They're building geth troopers," one marine pointed at a half-constructed foot soldier being assembled as it moved down a robotic assembly line on a conveyor. "The first ones will be done shortly."

"We better stop these machines," Alyssa decided, "or they'll overwhelm our numbers." She quickly got on her radio, "Wilkes, find a power relay for this place and blow it, I need these machines shut down before they build an army to oppose us."

"Yes, Ma'am," came his confident reply.

Again on the radio, but this time addressing everyone else, she added, "No time to waste. Everyone on me, we're going deeper into the structure. Keep an eye out for the control room or satellite transmission uplinks; they're priority targets for disrupting the weapon platforms above."

The bulk of the marines moved deeper into the facility, securing the hallways leading deeper into the facility. As they worked, a muffled explosion came from behind them. Over the radio, Wilkes announced, "One geth manufacturing facility—crippled."

"Make your way to us," Alyssa ordered, then signaled for the marines to resume their advance. One marine deciphered some geth writing near a door, indicating orbital command and control was housed inside. He called Lieutenant Morgan over, and she ordered them to secure whatever laid behind the door.

The dim red light made vision difficult for Damien, who was unaware of his helmet's night-vision enhancement ability. A cacphony of weapon's fire greeted his ears as he and the other marines burst inside, taking cover near computer terminals. There were many geth armed with their ubiquitous assault rifle that every geth seemed trained to use, but they were outnumbered at least 2:1 by the marines. The real threat was a geth prime, wielding another of the deadly heavy assault rifles that had more business being on a colossus or tank than it did being wielded by a foot soldier. The marines attempted to return fire when able, but the heavy weapon was debilitating, forcing them to spend more time hiding than attacking. Damien peeked over just enough to use a strong biotic push to send the geth's aim wildly off into the ceiling above the marines. Then he got to his feet and used his best biotic mass-lowering field to lift the prime off its feet. Impacts from the weapons of the other geth flickered off his kinetic barriers and he could barely hear Morgan order all marines to press the attack. Damien himself, the sole target of the unaffected geth soldiers, quickly ducked back down. As he did, a warning went off on his armor, informing him his kinetic barriers were breeched. He felt the all-too-familiar sting of a bullet smashing into his armor as he fell to the floor. He quickly checked the impact area with a probing hand and breathed a sigh of relief that his hand did not feel wet. The armor had withstood the bullet and saved him from injury.

By the time his kinetic barriers finally reestablished themselves, the battle was over, all geth eliminated. Damien got up and looked around the destroyed control room. "Any chance the computers even _work_ anymore?" he asked ruefully. "Wilkes?"

The technological specialist powered up his omni-tool and began studying the least damaged console. "LT, we might be screwed here; the consoles are completely trashed and that means I can't send new orders to the orbital platforms. If they were on an auto-fire pattern they'll keep going no matter what we do to what's left of this control room."

"That was the geth's intention all along," Damien realized. "The geth prime didn't seem horribly concerned with racking kills. He was spraying bullets everywhere just laying these computers to waste."

"Can you fix it?" Alyssa asked. "All we need is to alter its IFF list; delete the geth and add our ships to the identification system—we can turn them from enemies to allies. Then we get out of here and blow the AA guns. It'll take the geth ages to dig their way back to here."

"I think it's worth a try," Wilkes offered. "It's going to take a while. Get everyone here with C5 or higher specialization. I'll put their computer engineering skills to good use."

"We've waited this long to get here," Alyssa agreed, "Just get it done, Private."

While the more technologically adept soldiers began piecing together hardware to repair the damaged console, Alyssa, Damien, Victor and the others investigated the remainder of the facility. There were a few small rooms, all storage or in two cases, a kind of chemical laboratory. The facility was swept and found clear of enemy resistance. Almost forty minutes after Wilkes started his second project, he hailed the LT. "We're ready to give it a try," Wilkes offered. "We're lucky we disabled the geth as quickly as we did—they could have done a lot worse to this console if they'd been given the chance. I think it's working properly but I won't know until we try it and get some feedback from the fleet."

"Do it," Alyssa ordered. A few seconds later, Wilkes indicated his task completed. Lieutenant Morgan quickly got on the radio, increasing the power to maximum range so she was sure to reach her ship. "Lieutenant Morgan to the _Bunker Hill_, come in please."

"This is the _Bunker Hill_," replied a male voice of the officer manning the comm systems in the CIC.

"Let me speak to _Bunker Hill_ actual," Alyssa revised her request.

A few moments passed before Ashley Reed's voice was heard. "This is _Bunker Hill_ actual, Lieutenant Morgan, what's the situation down there?"

"Ma'am, we've secured the orbital weapons command facility. The computers were sabotaged but we attempted to repair one of them and switched their weapons' IFF friendly list with a list of our own ships. What is the status of the orbital weapons? Have they turned traitor on the geth?"

"That's a big affirmative, LT." Came her jubilant reply. "All platforms have reversed sides. Good work!"

"No problem, Captain. We've placed demolitions on the AA guns above this facility. Give us the word, we'll bust out and then blow the guns once we're clear. The roof might collapse; that would make it hard for anyone including the geth to get back down to this control room."

"Clear out your people, Lieutenant. Send us a burst when you're clear and blow the guns after a short five-count."

"Aye, aye, Ma'am." Morgan switched her radio back to a lower power level. "All Systems Alliance marines, this is Lieutenant Morgan of the _Bunker Hill_. We're busting this joint in five. I want everyone cleared out as soon as possible; good work, people."

The marines quickly removed themselves from the empty facility, escaping all the way to the western tree-line without difficulty. Damien turned back, resting the majority of his weight on his back leg, and watched the AA guns as they erupted in a massive explosion that covered the entire roof of the building. Black billowing smoke rose from the demolition zone, completely opaquing the view of the facility's top. Metal could be heard as it screeched, bending, tearing, and out-right snapping into pieces. It took several minutes for the smoke to thin out sufficiently to reveal some materials in the facility were burning and the roof had definitely collapsed below the walls. "Oorah!" He yelled out triumphantly, raising a fist into the air.

The other marines chimed in immediately, "Oorah!" They joined in congratulating each other on their accomplishment. The talking quickly wore down as the squads began organizing a perimeter as they waited for the ships to come and collect them. The _Bunker Hill_ swept in low first, coming to hover above the flat empty area between the facility and the western tree line. Morgan's squads immediately pulled out, heading for the ship, as lines were dropped. Alyssa's team ascended last, covering the ship and the marines as they were pulled into the mako bay. Once safely aboard, the _Bunker Hill_ closed her door and began returning to space, indirectly covered by the reprogrammed orbital weapons as they attacked the geth.

Soon as the ship was in orbit, the _Hill's_ VI once again announced the immediate cessation of artificial gravity. Deeper in the system, the battle raged onward, but the geth resistance was faltering with the sudden betrayal of their orbital weapons. The _Fuji_ was pounding a geth dreadnought as hard and quickly as it could, attempting to breech the hulking vessel's powerful kinetic barriers. Nearby, countless geth and human cruisers were engaged in battle, and wolfpack frigate flotillas raced throughout the chaotic scene, seeking out damaged ships in the enemy's fleet for a quick, unavoidable assault that would kill the target.

Since the rest of the 55th was waiting to retrieve their own marines one at a time, the five vessels in space at any one time remained near the planet and helped defend the weapons platforms from smaller attack craft like geth one-man fighters or geth frigates. At the same time, the orbital platforms were assisting in attacking the geth dreadnought the _Fuji_ was engaging, forcing it into attempting a slow retreat at sublight while its kinetic barriers continued to fall. When they finally collapsed completely, the _Fuji_ landed one of its massively powerful rounds on the geth's engines, completely obliterating all traces of them. The geth ship listed heavily to starboard and began a slow, uncontrolled counterclockwise spin on its z-axis, as if it was an oversized fighter seeking to do a strafing run while its momentum carried it forward.

The next hits from the Alliance dreadnought consequently hit the target's port broadside, further increasing the spin's rate of rotation and rotational inertia. Several geth cruisers were forced to pull hard maneuvers to rise or dive above the disabled dreadnought. One cruiser, having insufficient response time, plowed directly into the starboard side, roughly amidships. Like a giant mass accelerator projectile, the cruiser ended up causing massive damage as it was obliterated by the larger ship.

Aboard the _Fuji_, Admiral Hackett watched the explosions with a certain satisfaction that was hard to ignore. He turned back to his assistant with a predatory smile. "Status of the geth forces, Mr. Zwerschke?"

"Heavy casualties, Admiral. The geth were counting on their orbital weapons platforms to hold us back; now that we're advancing on their defensive line, we're inflicting more serious damage to their fleet."

"Tell all ships to press their attacks," Hackett commanded. "I want the geth driven out of this system."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

The _Bunker Hill_ sat stoically by itself on the flat surface of a great arid plain on one of the habitable planets in the star system. There was limited fighting continuing with the geth on the outskirts of the star system, but that was a great distance from this location, and there were still the orbital weapons above to assist in defense.

Gabrielle Allshouse was standing on top of the ship, carefully navigating its smooth dorsal surface to approach the damaged area at the aft. It was going to require a lot of work to patch the ship up from this serious a hit to where it would be able to enter FTL again. Damien stood with her, inspecting the damage. "Ouch,"

"Yeah," She stated wearily. "Think you can help us break the damaged hull sections clear? Then we can place a few patches over the holes—should return enough integrity to allow us to use FTL once again."

Damien's biotic corona lit up, but it was harder to see in the harsh overexposed brightness of the planet's day period. He punched forward with a biotic throw at one upward-curled piece of metal. The push drove the metal to curl further and extended the rip a few centimeters. "Well, not that way," He offered sheepishly. "But I can get all the scrap pieces we break free out of our way in a hurry. Not to mention there's always the normal approach: two hands and powerful construction equipment."

"That's the spirit," Gabrielle praised. "Over here, the team's bringing our tools out. See if you can pull them up here biotically and save us some time. We need to get started."

- - - - -

Ashley nervously pressed the waves of small wrinkles out of her uniform as she stood in the comm room. Convinced she was merely stalling for time and nothing further could be gained by continued fuss, she took a deep breath and activated the comm. The _Bunker Hill_ VI politely informed her, "Notice: comm signal bears wartime encryption sequences. Secure transmission follows."

As the voice disappeared, it was replaced by the sight of two Admirals; Hackett and Timber, who faced her through the holographic representations. "Admirals," She greeted.

"Captain; we've cleared Medusa from all geth presence thanks in no small part to the efforts of your marines on the surface. Pass the word we're very proud of each and every one of them. The _Bunker Hill_ and the 55th flotilla have both taken a beating in the battles thus far and you've held up well. You've certainly surpassed my expectations," Hackett admitted, "Usually the front line scouting flotillas last half as long with twice the damage."

"Thank you, Admiral. I'll pass the word."

"That said," Timber cut in, our flotilla is operating far less than optimal at the moment. How are your repairs progressing?"

"FTL within a day, Admiral." She reported proudly. "The _Bunker Hill_ is not out for long."

"I have new assignment orders. The 55th is to join the main body of the fleet for fleet-engagement small-craft support."

"You're taking us off scouting," Ashley Reed recognized immediately her suspicions had been confirmed. "Admirals."

"You have something to say, Captain?" Hackett asked, intrigued at the possible subtext she was trying to communicate.

Ashley covered up her lapse quickly when offered the chance."No, Admiral. The 55th will serve the Alliance to our absolute best in any capacity. If I may, what flotilla is taking over scouting duties for the next stage in the campaign?"

"The 63rd flotilla, under the command of Admiral Mikhailovich."

"Very well, Admirals. Do you have coordinates for our rendezvous with the fleet?"

"Transmitting now, Captain."

"Receiving incoming data stream." The VI appraised her. "Data received; beginning decryption."

"I have the information," Ashley stated.

"Good luck Captain; Hackett out." One of the holograms disappeared.

Timber smiled. "Don't look so surprised, Captain. It's the way these things work; you know that. Scouting flotillas always take the hardest hits being on their own."

"It's not that, Admiral. I'm just having too much fun out here bringing the fight to the geth." She smiled.

"Aren't we all?" he asked rhetorically. "Alright Captain, now I get to see if you actually practiced large fleet maneuvers or if you just went over the small stuff. Any cause for concern?" He acted like he knew the answer already, and he was right.

"No, Sir. The Triples Fives will kick ass."

"That's what I wanna hear, Captain. Timber out." His hologram also fizzled away.

"Secure transmission concluded," The VI intoned. "Powering down transmitter."

"Send the secure message to the CIC comm panel," Ashley ordered the empty room.

"Message sent."

Her business in here concluded, Ashley left the comm room for the CIC and her station. She relieved Commander Corman and took her post gratefully. Pausing, she leaned over towards her XO to conspire. "We've lost scouting detail. We're on normal fleet duty now."

"It's all right, Captain. I checked the logs; we broke our previous record twenty eight minutes ago." He smiled humorously.

"Whew," Ashley stated, surprised. "What a war; taking the fight to the geth and setting a new record for the amount of time spent as fleet scouts. We'll have a lot of stories to tell after this one." She straightened, ending the conversation on a good note.

- - - - -

"Just when I didn't think it could get any hotter out here," Damien joked, stopping near an engineer working with a welding torch. The engineer grunted, momentarily ceasing his work to accept some water from the civilian. He lifted his helmet and drank it all in a single swig, unable to satiate his extreme thirst.

"Thanks."

"No problem," Damien stated. He took the empty water bottle back and walked across the top of the ship routinely. He biotically tossed the bottle down into the appropriate bin to be refilled, taking a long gaze afterwards over the horizon. Something moved in his peripheral; he jerked instinctively to find out what it was. Seeing nothing but the tree line to the south, he pondered what set off his instincts, perplexed. Activating his armor's short-range radio, he questioned Lieutenant Morgan first. "Hey LT, how far away is the nearest geth presence from here?"

"Estimated 1500 kilometers," She replied quickly. "Why?"

"Nothing. I thought I might have seen something move in the woods due south, but I didn't catch it."

"I'll check in with my perimeter teams," Morgan offered. "Probably just your imagination."

"Right," Damien replied, not convinced. He felt comforted knowing his pistol was close at hand in its holster, but if there was something to see then he was more worried about the engineers working out on the hull, especially Gabrielle.

"Nothing from my perimeter teams, Civvy."

"Acknowledged," Damien stubbornly continued to stare for a few moments longer. Nothing was moving any longer. He gave up and returned to work, assisting the engineers in any way he could to ensure they spent as little time as possible on the surface of a planet that still had hostiles on its surface.

Many hours later, the engineers finished the final weld on the patch for the hull and the VI began scanning structural integrity for FTL viability. Gabrielle breathed a sigh of relief at the VI's smile as she affirmed her readings and removed the lock on the FTL systems. Reed ordered the perimeter teams to retreat to the ship immediately. Once all the marines were back aboard, the _Bunker Hill_ lifted into the sky, returning to the stars and the rest of her flotilla sitting in wait. The ships immediately set course for the fleet, which by now was securing the final star system. The cluster was far from completely safe, but all major areas of geth resistance were wiped, their ability to control space shattered, leaving the ground forces cut off from reinforcement. Hackett ordered a few ships to continue patrolling the system to avoid the geth from circling around and reinforcing the trapped soldiers.

According to quarian intelligence, there were only a handful of clusters left in the Veil. By now, even Ashley's gut had to admit things were looking very good for the offensive. The geth would have defended a system as important as Medusa with a majority of their navy; and if the forces they'd defeated were the majority, then the geth were in dire straits. Hackett judged the geth were ill-prepared to deal with a full-scale invasion by the Alliance fifth fleet so quickly after their complete and utter defeat at the Citadel. As more star systems were secured, it appeared to only be a matter of time until the Veil was under uncontested Alliance control.

The 63rd frigate flotilla sent word back to the fleet—the geth were retreating en masse to the system deepest in the veil—Autochthoe, "Born in the Land." Hackett ordered the fleet to advance rapidly, hoping to catch the geth before they could make their defenses ready for a last stand in the Autochthoe cluster. The _Bunker Hill_ and the rest of the Triple 5's were the first ships among the main body of the fleet to enter the cluster, barriers raised and ready for war.

Meeting up with Admiral Mikhailovich's flotilla, the frigates secured the secondary mass relay as the rest of the fleet arrived. The fleet wasted no time, immediately setting course deeper into the only star system with raw materials and somewhat habitable planets. The other star system was a red giant in the last stages of its life; it'd consumed most of the bodies in its orbit when it expanded, leaving little left, much less anything interesting or useful.

The geth were indeed digging in for a fierce battle here; the same orbital defenses first seen at Medusa were also here, in more prolific numbers, orbiting several planets. The geth fleet kept close to these defenses, using their firepower as an effective screen against smaller vessels.

The human fleet opened fire at extreme long range—but only a dreadnought's mass accelerator cannon could accelerate a projectile fast enough that a cruiser would be unable to reliably avoid it. With only two human dreadnoughts in the fleet, this effectively cut down on the human fleet's ability to deal damage to the mobile geth forces. Hackett ordered all ships to target the orbital platforms; each was in a geosynchronous orbit that was easily tracked for direct hits.

The first orbital weapon platforms fell quickly under the combined firepower of the fifth fleet. As the humans were taking out the platforms, they used evasive maneuvers and their range against the geth as well, keeping themselves largely devoid of serious damage. The only vessels taking debilitating hits were the dreadnoughts and carriers, whose massive kinetic barriers served to protect them. As the battle progressed, the human forces were the only ones making any headway as they continued shooting weapons platforms from the sky. The guns the geth were counting on to keep the fifth fleet at bay were disappearing quickly. Gaps began to form.

Hackett studied the situation. "Order the frigates and cruisers to close to effective range via weight class. Deploy fighters to defend the rear."

The small ships broke away from their larger allies and began heading for the geth fleet, now with nothing but themselves to count on. The battle lines quickly blurred as frigates from both sides closed on the opposing forces, beginning their close-ranged assaults. The _Stalingrad_, _Dunbar_, and _Bunker Hill_ teamed up together in a triangular wingman fashion, dodging between geth ships and seeking out targets with low or nonexistent kinetic barriers to attack. _Bannockburn,_ _Stirling Bridge_, and _Yorktown_, comprising the second half of the 55th flotilla, remained at medium range with the friendly cruisers, helping defend them against the geth frigates.

"Captain," Corman Wells got his superior's attention with his concerned tone. "I'm detecting an additional primary relay in this system. The quarian database did not list its existence in this system. I don't know where it came from, or where it goes, but it's here now, and it's active. I'm detecting another geth fleet—mostly transports—at the primary relay. They seem to be evacuating through the relay."

"Can we cut through the lines and attack the transports?" Ashley replied, studying the holographic strategic map even as she asked.

Corman arrived to the same conclusion she did a few moments before she did. "No, Captain. We'll be out-gunned behind the geth fleet and cut down before we get within 1500 kilometers of the geth transports."

The CIC officer in charge of sensors interrupted, "Captain, the geth dreadnought is changing its attitude and course; they've broken off their attack on the _Fuji_."

"Barrier status on that target?"

A beat passed as the officer studied his sensors. "Still holding integrity. The ship is aiming at its own forces at the primary mass relay."

"It's not aiming at all," Ashley stated, disgusted. "Their capital is attempting to flee with the rest of the geth forces."

"Well they've got a hell of a frigate and interceptor cloud around the dreadnought pushing all Alliance ships away from it. We won't be able to get in its way." Even as the Commander spoke, the geth dreadnought's FTL went active, and the light emissions from the dreadnought went visibly blue-shifted, the tell-tale sign of a ship at FTL speeds. The remainder of the geth forces continued to fight viciously, drawing fire and preventing the Alliance ships from breaking through their lines. As the battle continued to turn in the Alliance's favor, the frigates were finally able to break through, immediately using FTL to get to the primary relay. As the frigates approached, however, the area was completely cleared of geth ships and the relay was inactive.

Reed was understandably confused. "Are you telling me they didn't use the mass relay to escape?"

Corman Wells conferred with the sensor officer before answering. "The relay is showing no signs of activity, just like the Charon relay in our solar system was inactive and encased in ice when we found it. We can activate the relay, but it'll take time. Not to mention, if the geth had activated the relay and used it, it would still be operating _now_ as well. Relays do not power down unless they lie unused for a century. There is no known way to power down a relay prematurely once it's been activated. The geth aren't here, but I can't see how they could have used the relay either."

"Continue securing the system," Reed ordered. "We'll come back to this relay business once we have a better grasp of what the geth left behind."

- - - - -

Admiral Hackett yawned. Another debrief, one among dozens he'd had since returning from the Perseus Veil. The rest of the Admiralty had already had their chat with him, and now it was apparently deemed worthy of a direct conversation with parliament. The Systems Alliance Parliament was the governing "face" of humanity in the greater galactic community, and represented all of Earth's interests. He stood to attention as the parliament members entered. Together, they took their seats.

"Admiral Hackett, we've received your post-action reports on the invasion. We are pleased with the success and progress. What is the most recent situation report for the region?"

"The geth are not gone. Their garrisons refuse to surrender. I anticipate that without a large-scale troop invasion we will never completely control the Veil; however, we do control where it counts: there have been no geth ship contact reports since the initial invasion. It appears we have broken their hold on the region and destroyed the majority of their remaining armada."

"But not all of them," a tall, dark-skinned member pointed out gruffly.

"No. We observed geth apparently fleeing into a primary relay that leads to an unknown location. However, they were mostly troop transports, besides the surviving dreadnought itself, it appears the geth have very little naval forces left."

"It was your initial report that the geth merely vanished without a trace—are you now saying you know they used this mass relay to escape?"

"It is our leading theory." Hackett answered.

"Then how is it when you secured the relay not even an hour after the geth disappeared you found the relay was inactive?"

"I have nothing but theories on that point, Senator. It is possible the geth discovered a way to trip the built-in system responsible for deactivating relays. With your permission, I want to activate the relay and send my fleet in pursuit of the remaining geth ships."

"The Council has heard your request and denied it, Admiral. They have warned us that any attempt to activate the relay will be met harshly."

"Senators, with all due respect, the Council is afraid of what we might find behind the next relay we open. They opened a relay and met a vicious race called the Rachni that nearly overwhelmed them. Ever since, all they want to do is to hide in ignorance of the greater relay network. This is why I suspect the geth planned on deactivating the relay in the first place. If we do not go now, we will lose them. Even worse, give them time to rebuild."

"The Council believes we've beaten the geth badly enough to allow them to run, and we are in agreement. The geth have a token fleet left while ours continues to grow stronger. If they ever return to the Veil, we'll be ready for them."

"It is a great risk we're taking," Hackett complained. "Despite all the military's technological advancements over the past forty years, we cannot predict the future."

"It is not up for debate, Admiral. We're going to leave the relay inactive."

Hackett grimaced, his jaw muscles flexing as he kept his mouth wired shut. "Very well."

"We're ordering the full evacuation of the fifth fleet from the Perseus Veil for repair and refitting at Arcturus. We'll send in relief forces from other fleets to keep the Veil and its mysterious new mass relay secured. The Council has pledged its support as well. The turians and asari have ships already en route. There's talk the quarian flotilla may return home, refugees no longer."

Another councilman stepped in, "You've done the Alliance a great service in the Veil, Admiral. You have our thanks for your fine work. We couldn't have asked for a more effective nor less costly invasion."

"There will be a public announcement over the extranet and an honorary function in Madrid in two weeks to celebrate the victory over the geth. You are expected to attend as the guest of honor."

"I'll be there, Senators."

- - - - -

The _Bunker Hill_ glided into her berth at Arcturus station, a giant station housing 45,000 permanent residents. Arcturus was only one jump away from Earth using the famed charon relay, making a perfect place for the seat of the Systems Alliance and the dock for the first fleet—responsible for earth's defense. It was always a busy place, much like the Citadel, but with far fewer aliens in its midst. Captain Reed personally delivered her final orders to the crew before they were placed on leave. She had only one left to deliver; Damien Cross.

She found him in the locker room, securing his gear and apparently putting his pistol back together again. "Nice weapon, Damien."

"Thank you, Captain." Damien replied, distracted by his work. "Arcturus. Never been here before. I look forward to getting the tour, Gabrielle seems to know a lot about this place."

"She does, everyone in the navy does. You will too, you stay with my crew long enough."

"Still worried I'm going to bolt through the mako bay door the minute you need me most?" Damien asked, a smile touching the corners of his mouth in amusement.

"I guess that's partially why I am here." She stated. "Had any second thoughts? You were just involved in a _war_, it'd be understandable."

"Yes it would." He replied. "Not what I had in mind on Elysium. But then, I've changed as well. I used to think I would never be able to handle taking life. The geth might be synthetic but I'm told they're true artificial intelligence. It was pretty close to taking life. I also took the life of a mercenary on Elysium. I told myself it wasn't the same, doing it on accident in self-defense. Hell, I was even flippant about it to his surviving mercenary buddy."

"You aren't there yet, Damien." She replied. "Trust me, it's still a long way from shooting faceless synthetic armies to staring into the eyes of another with the intention to kill."

"You're right, of course." Damien admitted. "I've imagined it. In my dreams, my nightmares, occasionally. It's always been there, a stray thought at the back of my head: what it would take to get me to take a life."

"What is it you're trying to say?"

Damien took a deeper breath before continuing. "That I think I'm ready to face it. I'm ready to devote myself to protecting other people, no matter what that may require. That I'm ready to say this is my new duty and this is my new family, and that I will not abandon it, relying on others to do it for me. It's a part of what makes this messed up galaxy work. I realize that now, in a very personal way."

Reed considered his words gravely. "I don't like it but I've always thought the same. What else are we going to do? We need to defend ourselves. So, you're willing to commit to my crew?"

Damien nodded. "Yes. I am. I saw you giving orders to the other crew—what was that about?"

She smiled. "I have one for you as well. Just because the ship is drydocked for refitting and real repair work, doesn't mean the crew gets to sit on their collective butts and smile. Most have temporary reassignment orders, or in your case, training. I want to send you to Thessia."

"The homeworld of the asari?" Damien was incredulous. "Why?"

"The Alliance is offering you the chance to train under asari biotic trainers—they aren't asari commandos by birth, it takes very intense, very long training; and they have the finest biotic training in the galaxy. This is a chance of a lifetime. Few human biotics get this chance."

"If I'd known you'd be sending me halfway across the galaxy I might have answered a little differently before," Damien replied dryly. The two shared a quiet bout of laughing together. "Thessia." He spoke the name reverently. "I'm a little intimidated, to be honest. Asari commandos are the most formidable biotic warriors in the galaxy. Isn't their usual training a little... _long_ for my lifespan?"

Ashley laughed again, despite herself. "Actually," she goaded, "It's only 20-30 years of training for a typical asari huntress. You've got time."

"Thirty years." Damien practically toppled over. "That's longer than I've been alive, Captain. Wow. They must be damn near unstoppable to put that much training into one soldier."

"They are. You won't be sticking around that long, Damien. You'd attend a year-long course made specifically for non-asari coming into Thessia through this Training Exchange program."

"A _year_? Is the _Bunker Hill_ really going to be out of commission that long?"

"No," She replied. "But my marines all have taken dedicated training on Earth for years before coming aboard my ship. You're technically classified as crew, but you'll be most readily involved in marine activities on the surface of a planet. I need you to have at least some training in military procedure to make this work; and you haven't had any organized training in biotics whatsoever. Trust me, you need this if you want to work on my ship."

"I'll miss you guys." Damien replied. "Lieutenant Morgan, Private Stall, Staff Lieutenant Gabrielle, yourself. But I guess I need to play catch-up."

"We'll pound a lot of the civilian out of you," She replied. "I hope you're all right with that."

"I'll be fine, Captain. Whatever it takes. I want to do my part to help."

"I'm glad to hear you say that. Here's your official reassignment orders, Damien. Don't lose them. We'll see you when you graduate. Make sure that you do."

Damien took the offered paper. "No pressure."

"Live with it," She replied harshly, smiling. "Pressure comes with what we do."

"Never a dull moment these days," Damien concluded their conversation, glancing at his gear in the locker. "Do I need to bring this stuff?"

She looked at the pistol and armor. "It may be the military's, but they got it for you, so if I were you I'd take it along. It's not going to do anything sitting in here while you're gone."

Damien nodded, beginning to pull out the armor. "Then I guess I'll put it on and collect my duffel. Captain,"

"Goodbye, Damien. Good luck on Thessia." She turned, heading for the CIC to finish locking out the _Bunker Hill_'s systems for the ship's first nap in years. When she awoke next, she'd be prepared for whatever she might encounter, whole and fully functional. Damien, wearing his armor, pistol sheathed on his hip, carried a duffel filled with clothes and one tiny ball he'd used for practice in the mako bay so often. As he walked past the banks of computers responsible for managing the ship's heat build up, he called out to the silent air, "Goodbye, _Bunker Hill_. I'll see you in one year."

A panel in the airlock turned on by itself, displaying the _Bunker Hill_ VI. She smiled, giving a slight bow, "Goodbye, Mr. Cross. I will note your expected return in the log."

Surprised, he grinned ruefully and nodded back in her direction. "I'll miss you too." The panel shut down, and Damien left the _Bunker Hill_ behind.

* * *

Author's Note: I'm thinking about writing a sequel but for now this is the end. Anyone who read this far, I salute you, and I hope you enjoyed the ride.  
It feels good to have my priemere fic fully posted now. If you were dedicated enough to read the full story, let me know what you think via a review, because without reviews it seems like nobody's sticking with it. I'd like to be proven wrong on that point :)


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